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Brown Noddies off Cape Hatteras; Space on Upcoming Pelagic Trips



Dear Carolinabirders,

I had hoped to get the word out sooner, but I'm pleased to report that
we saw Brown Noddy on two consecutive pelagic trips from Oregon Inlet on
August 9 and 10.  Most of us thought that Sunday's bird looked slightly
different form the one on Saturday, and at least one observer felt
certain that he saw an additional Brown Noddy on Sunday which was
distant and was lost to view during a rain squall.  In any event these
are the first noddies that I have seen off North Carolina in over a
decade, and I understand that there have also been pelagic sightings of
Brown Noddies to the north of the usual range in Florida this summer.
It will be interesting to see if Brown Noddies how up on any of our
remaining trips this summer off Cape Hatteras, as it is not even quite
peak season for Bridled and Sooty here now.

We also saw good numbers of Band-rumped Storm-Petrels on the trips over
the weekend.  We had several come very close to the boat while we were
chumming on both days.  I think the rain helped with that, as they are
usually much more wary on clear days.  Otherwise numbers of bird were
comparitively low, but the action was pretty steady each day.  Spurgeon
Stowe, running fishing trips on the Miss Hatteras, reported seeing good
numbers of shearwaters over the weekend south of Cape Hatteras, but we
did not see that many north of the Cape.  I will post the tallies from
both trips to my website soon;  I'm a bit too pressed for time to
include them here now.

For those interested in joining us on a trip over the next few weeks, we
still have room on all of our trips.  We will be out from Virginia Beach
this Saturday hoping to see a White-faced Storm-Petrel, but we will be
going from Hatteras again on August 23 and 24.  We will be going from
Manteo (Oregon Inlet) on August 30 (hopefully if there are enough
registrants) and 31(at least that day).  Then we are back in Hatteras
for trips on September 13 and 14.  Details about all of our trips can be
found on our website at http://www.seabirding.com/.  For any inquiries
tha require any sort of complex answer, please call me at (252) 986-1363
(before 10 PM please).

Thanks,

Brian Patteson
Seabirding
Hatteras, NC
brian@patteson.com