[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

5 More Heralds; Participants Needed F/ This Wkd's Pelagic Trips



Dear Carolinabirders,

We just completed two great pelagic trips from Hatteras, NC over the
past weekend, where we saw 15 species of pelagic seabirds over two days.
Herald (Trinidade) Petrels were again a highlight, and Saturday=92s trip
found FOUR of them, which I believe is the record high count for the
western North Atlantic. Sunday=92s trip only had one, but that particular
bird lingered at close range around the Miss Hatteras for about TEN
MINUTES! In addition to providing the best view of the species ever on
one of these trips, this light morph bird was the 17th individual that
we have seen this season, and the 10th in the last two weekends.  I=92m
not sure of the exact cause of this remarkable influx of these rare
petrels, but hopefully it will continue for a while longer. We still
have a LOT of spaces on our trips aboard the Country Girl from Manteo
THIS WEEKEND. On Saturday and Sunday we have trips scheduled to search
for White-faced Storm-Petrels, and on Monday we have a regular Gulf
Stream trip scheduled. Reservations for Saturday and Sunday are $195/
person for the two trips, and if single day slots are availble they will
be $100/person/day. Monday=92s trip is $95. These are all day trips that
usually last 11-12 hours. We saw a WHITE-FACED STORM-PETREL on our first
search trip about two weeks ago, and while we missed them the following
weekend, the conditions were not prime for finding them that weekend. We
also have room on our Virginia Beach pelagic trip on Sunday, Sept. 17,
which is an all day trip from Lynnhaven Inlet to the shelf edge costing
$95/ person. This too could be a good place to see a White-faced
Storm-Petrel.

I hope that some of you can join us for these trips. September is a good
time to see Long-tailed Jaegers, and pretty much all of the rarities
that have been seen on these trips have been found in September as well
as July and August. Passerine and shorebird migration on the coast can
also be exceptional with the right weather. More information about all
of our trips can be accessed at our website- http://www.patteson.com/.
Be sure to check out our seabird images scanned from photos taken on our
trips.  If you=92d like to talk to me about pelagics, please call me at
(252) 986-1363 evenings before 9PM.
Below is a list of birds seen over the last two weekends on trips from
Manteo (Aug. 19, 20, 21) and Hatteras (Aug. 26, 27).

Species- Aug. 19/ 20/ 21/ 26/ 27

Black-capped Petrel-104/ 1/ 52/ 104/ 263/
BERMUDA PETREL-one on Aug. 19-good looks- our 4th this season!
HERALD PETREL-2/ 0/ 3/ 4/ 1
Pterodroma sp.- one distant one on Aug. 20
Cory=92s Shearwater- 728/ 1253/ 815/ 275/ 205
Greater Shearwater- 1/ 305/ 110/ 19/ 3
Sooty Shearwater- 1/ 0/ 0/ 1/ 0
Manx Shearwater- 0/ 3/ 0/ 0/ 1
Audubon=92s Shearwater- 116/ 30/ 23/ 30/ 68
Wilson=92s Storm-Petrel- 113/ 326/ 323/ 129/ 349
Leach=92s Storm-Petrel- 0/ 2/ 4/ 0/ 0
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel- 2/ 0/ 0/ 4/ 1
MASKED BOOBY- one on Aug. 21
Red-necked Phalarope- 3/ 0/ 20/ 15/ 20
Phal. sp.- 6 on Aug. 21, probably RNPH
Pomarine Jaeger- 0/ 26/ 6/ 11/ 4
jaeger sp.- 0/ 1/ 1/ 0/ 0
South Polar Skua- 1/ 2/ 1/ 0/ 1
skua sp.- 0/ 1/ 0/ 0/ 0
Bridled Tern- 5/ 5/ 2/ 5/ 20
Sooty Tern- 45/ 0/ 2/ 22/ 27

In addition to the birds, we also saw Bottlenose Dolphins, Spotted
Dolphins, Risso=92s Dolphin, and Cuvier=92s Beaked Whales. Fishing was slo=
w,
but we did catch Dolphin (mahi-mahi) and Wahoo.

Thanks,

Brian Patteson
Hatteras, NC
Brian@Patteson.com