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Pelagic results from Manteo trips



The pelagic trips from the Outer Banks this long Memorial Day weekend were 
quite productive. Brian Patteson ran trips Fri(Manteo) and Sat-Sun(Hatteras) 
and Mike Tove ran trips from Manteo Sat and Sun. I was on board with Tove's 
group out of Manteo on the Country Girl (Allen Foreman). I thought people 
would like to get a run-down of the birds found out of Manteo. The Monday 
trips were weathered out.

The first number is for Saturday and the second is for Sunday.

Black -capped Petrel: 108, 136
Bermuda Petrel: 0, 1
Herald Petrel: 0, 1
"dark pterodroma" sp.: 1, 0
Cory's Shearwater: 38, 55
Sooty Shearwater: 1, 0
Audubon's Shearwater: 66, 99
Wilson's Storm-Petrel: 82, 116
Leach's Storm-Petrel: 1, 1
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel: 9, 1
Red-necked Phalarope:  2, 2
Pomarine Jaeger: 2, 3
"jaeger" sp.: 0, 1
Laughing Gull: 0, 1
Royal Tern: 0, 1
Common Tern: 0, 3
Arctic Tern: 1, 0
"white-backed tern" sp.: 5, 0
Bridled Tern: 2, 0
"dark-backed tern" sp.: 0, 4

The Bermuda Petrel was observed very briefly (one pass by the boat), but the 
distance was satisfactory for observing field marks. Although with such a 
brief look, many on board did not see all the marks one would hope for. 
The Herald Petrel was a dark morph and it too made one pass by the boat. 
There were several on the boat that did not have a chance to get on it. 
These two instances summed up the trip in that many birds were seen at some 
distance, thereby frustrating many who wanted good looks at them. Still there 
were plenty of birds to look at and most everyone enjoyed the two days.
Cetaceans were few with only two Pilot Whales on Sunday, and Bottle-nosed 
Dolphins both days. When you see the results of Brian's trips, you will be 
impressed by the numbers of pterodromas found on the five pelagic trips this 
weekend.
See you next year for more Memorial Day Weekend pelagics.

Later, Ricky



Ricky Davis
608 Smallwood Drive
Rocky Mount, NC 27804
(252)443-0276(H)
(919)269-7401(W)
RJDNC@aol.com