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Re: 4 spp. of Pterodroma off Hatteras



Regarding the May 26 (Sunday) trip off Oregon Inlet, Brian mentioned one
unidentified Bermuda/Fea's type petrel. I tentatively identified it as a
Bermuda, but rightfully was left as Bermuda/Fea's when we read off the
list at the end of the day. That night, after reviewing the detailed
Bermuda Petrel article in Birding in 1998 by Wingate, Patteson, and
others, I am certain the bird was a Bermuda. Brian's photo of the dorsal
side in the article matches what I recall of the bird -- very slender
and long wings with parallel sides (i.e., not as tapered as other
Pterodormas)and a narrow base, and a rather long or slender body/tail
beyond the wings. The body was slender as well, giving a very buoyant
aspect in the air that recalled a tern or Bulwer's Petrel rather than a
Pterodroma that I was familiar with. Essentially none of us who saw the
bird reasonably well (it was about 30% off the sun in not good light)
had any experience with Bermuda, but I have considerable experience with
Fea's and of course Black-capped, and knew it wasn't either of them. (I
also reviewed the photos in the two Tove articles on Fea's Petrel in the
1997 Birding, and the bird was not a Fea's.) We did not have these
articles on board the boat.

Thus, for the record, there were two Bermudas on the May 27 trip out of
Hatteras, and one on the May 26 trip out of Manteo. By the way, we had a
total of 15 (!!) pelagic species on the May 26 trip -- Black-capped
Petrel, Herald Petrel (distant view), Bermuda Petrel (poor light view
but rather close); Cory's, Greater, Sooty, and Audubon's shearwaters;
Wilson's, Band-rumped, and Leach's storm-petrels; Red-necked Phalarope;
South Polar Skua; Pomarine and Long-tailed (nice adult) jaegers; and
Bridled Tern.  

Harry LeGrand

Brian wrote:
> 
> Dear Carolinabirders,
> 
> Our pelagic trips last weekend from Hatteras and Manteo were rather
> successful in finding the rare gadfly petrels, especially on Monday.
> Our trip from Hatteras that day, May 27, found 146 Black-capped Petrels,
> 
> one Herald Petrel, two Fea's Petrels, and two Bermuda Petrels, the
> latter sitting together with three Black-caps!  Our trip from Manteo
> that day saw 31 Black-caps, one Fea's, and two Heralds, the latter two
> flying together!  All of the rare petrels on both Monday trips were seen
> 
> close to the boats.  Single distant Herald Petrels were seen off
> Hatteras on May 25 and off Manteo on May 26.  We saw two distant Heralds
> 
> off  Manteo on May 24, and we saw three close Heralds off Hatteras on
> May 26.  A couple of other small gadfly petrels were seen on May 26 from
> 
> each port- these may have been either Fea's or Bermuda Petrels.  Variety
> 
> was good for the weekend with 12 or more true pelagic species on most
> days, and 14 species off Manteo on May 24 and 26!  With the exception of
> 
> Cory's, shearwaters were in short supply, but there was a good jaeger
> migration underway, with 78 Pomarines and 4 Long-taileds on May 24!  We
> will post the complete list for all the trips on our website soon.
> 
> Our trips from Manteo on May 31 and from Hatteras on June 1 and June 2
> have a handful of spaces still available.  We also have a number of
> openings on our trip from Manteo on June 8 and we NEED people for June 9
> 
> in order to avoid canceling it.  If you would like to join any of these
> trips please call me at (252) 986-1363. I will not be able to get e-mail
> 
> from Thursday afternoon until Friday night, so please CALL if you would
> like to get on these trips.  I can't promise it will be as good as last
> weekend, but we do have several keen leaders on the trips this weekend
> as well as near boatfloads of eager participants, so hopefully no
> goodies will slip by unseen.  More information about all of these trips
> can be found on our website at http://www.patteson.com/.  I hope that
> some of you can join us on  these trips.
> 
> Brian Patteson
> Hatteras, NC
> Brian@Patteson.com

-- 
Harry LeGrand
NC Natural Heritage Program
1615 MSC
Raleigh, NC 27699-1615
(919) 715-8687 (work)
FAX: 919-715-3085
e-mail: harry.legrand@ncmail.net