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

July 19 Pelagic Report; Space on Upcoming Trips



Dear Carolinabirders,

I would like to thank everyone who read my pleas for more participants
on last weekend's Hatteras trip and came out.  We ventured offshore
aboard the Miss Hatteras last Saturday with 31 participants and several
experienced leaders.  Seas were slight to moderate with a southwest wind
of 10 to 20 knots.  Water temperatures ranged between 81 and 84 degrees
for most of the trip, and the Gulf Stream was a bit farther out than
usual.  Birds were steady but not particularly numerous.  We found most
of the expected species, but saw no real rarities or surprises.  I did
hear of a couple of tropicbirds seen by other (fishing) boats, but we
did not see one.  Probably the biggest surprise were the low numbers of
Cory's Shearwater, as this is often the most numerous summer seabird
offshore of Cape Hatteras, and we did see an oddly marked Wilson's
Storm-Petrel with quite a few white feathers.  I'll try to get some
pictures of it on my website soon.

Pelagic Seabirds Seen off Hatteras on July 19, 2003

Black-capped Petrel- 72
Cory's Shearwater- 13
Greater Shearwater- 6
Audubon's Shearwater- 26
Wilson's Storm-Petrel- 140
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel- 12
Leach's Storm-Petrel- 7
Bridled Tern- 3
Sooty Tern- 69

Cetaceans-

Atlantic Spotted Dophin- 6+
Bottlenose Dolphin- 51

We still have space on all of our upcoming trips, including this
Saturday's trip from Manteo, NC July 26.  We had originally planned a
trip for July 27 as well, but we do not have enough participants to run
that one.  It seems that fewer people are booking for two days this year
and our summer bookings a relatively more local this season than in some
years past.

Other Upcoming Trips-

We will run both dates IF there are enough registrants for each.

August 2, 3- Hatteras
August 9, 10- Manteo
August 16, 17- Va. Beach, VA- could be good for White-faced Storm-Petrel
August 23, 24- Hatteras
August 30, 31- Manteo
September 6, 7- Va. Beach- think WFSP!
September 13, 14- Hatteras
October 11- Hatteras

More information about all of our trips can be found on our website at
http://www.seabirding.com/.

I hope that some of you can join us this summer and help us to learn
more about our pelagic seabirds off Cape Hatteras and the Virginia
Capes.

Brian Patteson
Hatteras, NC
brian@patteson.com