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Pelagic Trips: Add'l trip possible May 27, Space on May 26, June 1, 7, 8



Dear Carolinabirders,

Here in the Gulf Stream off Hatteras, we are finally seeing the arrival
of some new species of pelagic birds over the last few days.  Wilson’s
Storm-Petrels, Sooty Shearwaters, and Pomarine Jaegers have now joined
the gannets and fulmars, which are still frequenting the Gulf Stream
edge, and the occasional Black-capped Petrel can be seen around the
shelf break, though they are no doubt more numerous out in the deep,
beyond the wanderings of the tuna fleet in recent days.   Interest in
our spring trips this year has been quite high and most of our dates in
May are now sold out.  The one exception is Monday, May 26- Memorial Day
.  At this point we need a few more particpants to sign up in order to
make it feasible to run a boat from Manteo as well as Hatteras on that
date.  So, if  you would like to go then, please let me know as soon as
possible.  We are also considering the option of a trip on Tuesday,  May
27 from Manteo if the availabilty of two trips  would make it more
attractive for some prospective May 26 participants.  If 20 people are
willing to go on May 27, then we will add it to the schedule.

While we have had a stong response on the trips in May, we still have
room on three trips in June.  There are about 12 spaces left on Sunday,
June 1 from Hatteras, and the trips there on June 7 and 8 are still wide
open.  THESE TRIPS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE JUST AS GOOD AS THE MAY
TRIPS, especially if there are a lot of people on the boat looking.
Some species- Greater Shearwater, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, and both
tropicbirds are even more likely on those later dates- and we have seen
Fea’s, Bermuda, and Herald Petrel in June as well as May.  For the
newcomer, this time is a better choice than May because there will
usually be a larger number of birds on those dates, and thus it is a
better opportunity to get familiar with them.

All of our summer trips between July and September still have space, and
I should mention that these trips have also been productive for rare
gadfly pertrels in past years, and that the only documented records of
Bulwer’s Petrel and Swinhoe’s Storm-Petrel have come from this period.
This is the time to hope for White-faced Storm-Petrels on trips off
Virginia Beach and Oregon Inlet, and during some summers the Hatteras
trips have been great for tropicbirds- mostly White-tailed, but we have
seen up to four Red-bills in a season!  Information about all of our
trips can be found on our website-  http://www.seabirding.com/.  We are
in the process of changing the site around a bit and I had hoped to have
some new images added by now, especially photos from the Southern Ocean,
but both myself and webmaster Les Willis have been overwhelmed with a
host of other projects which have taken priority, so it may be a while
yet.  In the meantime,  be thinking about spring and summer pelagic
birding off North Carolina and Virginia.  We may not run such an
extensive schedule of trips every year, so be sure to take advantage of
this year’s offerings which include trips on EVERY WEEKEND between July
19 and September 14.

I hope to see you on the boat this year

Brian Patteson
Seabirding
Hatteras, NC
brian@patteson.com