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White-faced SP seen on Aug. 13; Space on Upcoming Pelagic Trips



Dear Carolinabirders,

I hope the summer is treating you well. I=92ve been incredibly busy, but I
wanted to take time to report on our July and August pelagic trips to
date, which included a successful White-faced Storm-Petrel search on
August 13.

Since July 15, we=92ve run nine pelagic birding trips from the Outer Banks
of North Carolina- six from Hatteras Inlet and three from Oregon Inlet.
The majority of these trips have found an excellent diversity of pelagic
bird species  and large numbers of seabirds as well as some remarkable
sea mammals and fish. July trips on the Miss Hatteras were good for
tropicbirds, with a total of at least four seen over three of our four
trips that month, including one right next to the boat during a heavy
downpour on July 15!   Participants on our July 15 trip also enjoyed
good views of a Fea=92s Petrel. Herald Petrels have been hard to come by
compared to some summers, but we did have a distantly seen one on July
30. Some more common species were found in greater than usual numbers on
some trips. Sooty Terns and Pomarine Jaegers were quite common in July,
and we had 4 South Polar Skuas on July 30. Band-rumped Storm-Petrel
numbers have been boom or bust. We had only 5 on August 5, then a
record-breaking 234 the next day on basically the same route. As I=92ve
said many times before, it pays to take two trips.

We just completed our first White-faced Storm-Petrel search of the
summer over the weekend and found success around 2PM on Day One, with a
bird that came into our fish oil slick behind the Country Girl about 40
miles east of Oregon Inlet. We were able to follow the bird for about 20
minutes and enjoy watching it=92s peculiar bouncing and sailing flight.
This was the second White-faced Storm-Petrel reported from this area so
far this summer. Hopefully there will be more. We still have room on
WFSP search trips on August 20, 21 and Sept. 2,3. These are two day sets
that target the species in an area north of the Gulf Stream. The
strategy is to search likely areas for the bird until one is found or
two days are up. If we find one on the first day, then we may go to the
Gulf Stream on the second day to search for other species which are more
likely there. The cost of each set is $195 and this includes two boat
trips on the Country Girl from Pirates Cove near Manteo. We just started
the WFSP trips last summer and we=92ve found them on two of four days
searching. This record may well change over time and some years may be
better than others. Time will tell the story.

We also have space on regular Gulf Stream trips on August 19 and Sept. 4
on the Country Girl, and on August 26 and 27 on the Miss Hatteras. These
trips are likely to see Black-capped Petrels and Band-rumped
Storm-Petrels, which are possible but not as likely on the WFSP search
trips. The Country Girl trips are $95/person /day and the Miss Hatteras
trips are $85/person/day. Food is available for sale on the Miss
Hatteras, but not on the Country Girl. Each trip is well staffed with
experienced leaders and crew.

The diversity of birds seen so far this summer has been impressive. The
results from the nine trips are included here below. The first six trips
were from Hatteras Inlet, the latter three from Oregon Inlet. All except
for August 13 ventured well into the Gulf Stream current.

Species- 7/15,7/16,7/29,7/30,8/5,8/6,8/12,8/13,8/14

Black-capped Petrel- 58/ 234/ 176/ 126/ 83/ 306/ 148/ 1/ 55
FEA=92S PETREL- one well seen on July 15
HERALD PETREL- one (distant) on July 30
Cory=92s Shearwater- 32/ 74/ 1156/ 646/ 715/ 250/ 79/ 79/ 105
Greater Shearwater- 11/ 16/ 293/ 203/ 34/ 51/ 0/ 1/ 3
Sooty Shearwater- one on July 14
Manx Shearwater- 0/ 1/ 1/ 2/ 1/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 1
Audubon=92s Shearwater- 30/ 37/ 85/ 58/ 73/ 51/ 28/ 4/ 9
Wilson=92s Storm-Petrel- 58/ 171/ 281/ 152/ 125/ 814/ 154/ 935/ 96
Leach=92s Storm-Petrel- 11/ 0/ 1/ 0/ 1/ 2/ 0/ 1/ 0
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel- 43/ 17/ 32/ 13/ 5/ 234/ 5/ 3/ 0
WHITE-FACED STORM-PETREL- one on special search trip Aug 13; 20 minute
study
WHITE-TAILED TROPICBIRD- two on July 15, singles on July 29, 30
Red-necked Phalarope- 0/ 0/ 0/ 7/ 0/ 14/ 5/ 4/ 19
Pomarine Jaeger-3/ 1/ 19/ 16/ 6/ 1/ 0/ 3/ 0
Parasitic Jaeger- one on July 15
Long-tailed Jaeger- two on Aug. 6
South Polar Skua- 0/ 0/ 2/ 4/ 0/ 1/ 0/ 0/ 0
Bridled Tern- 4+/ 10/ 2/ 10/ 1/ 1/ 2/ 6/ 4
Sooty Tern- 38/ 29/ 86/ 0/ 17/ 21/ 2/ 2/ 1

In addition to these twenty species of pelagic seabirds seen on these
trips, we saw several Cuvier=92s Beaked Whales, Spotted Dolphin,
Bottlenose Dolphin, Risso=92s Dolphin, and Pilot Whales, a breaching Sperm
Whale on July 29, and four Fin Whales on Aug. 13. Trolling for pelagic
fish produced two Blue Marlin, which we released, a few Wahoo, and
several Dolphin, including the rarely seen Pompano Dolphin.

I hope that many of you can join us on the upcoming trips. For more
information, and to see some of the BEST images of pelagic seabirds on
the Net, please visit our website at http://www.patteson.com/. If you
have questions and would like to talk to me, please call me at (252)
986-1363 during the evening between 7 and 9 PM.

Brian Patteson
Hatteras, NC
Brian@Patteson.com