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Re: Hurricane Birding?



Carolinabirders,

For our sakes and for the safety of our seabirds, let's hope this thing
stays out to sea and wanes when it hits cold water north of the Gulf
Stream.  Black-capped Petrels do not fare too well in freshwater
environments like Lake Ontario, and past storms have put dozens of
corpses on the Great Lakes.  The fact that two or three Cory's
Shearwaters were seen along the causeway between Roanoke Island and Nags
Head for two or three weeks after Bonnie in '98 suggests they have a
hard time getting back to the ocean even when they are close to it
sometimes.  The terns might do better.  We watched Sooties soaring
upwards and heading east from Kerr Dam in '96 within a few hours of
arriving there with hurricane Fran.

Of course if the storm does come here, there could be some interesting
birds brought inland, which will likely be the most accessible place to
see them.  I can tell you from experience that Hatteras Island is not
the place to be, because the flooding sound waters make it all but
impossible to get to a good vantage point, and places like Cape Point
will be off limits.  A couple of us got trapped on Roanoke Island during
Bonnie in '98 and it turned out to be a blessing because she blew down
dozens of big pine trees onto the highway in Currituck county that night
on her way back out to sea.  We had just driven down that highway from
VA earlier that afternoon.  We did see a number of birds over the
Croatan Sound in a short period of time- Cory's, Black-capped,
Band-rumped, and probably a Herald Petrel.  For many birders not
familiar with those species they would have been largely unidentified
though, as they were mostly very distant scope views in varying rainfall
intensity-specks.  They were certainly not the views that you get most
of the time on one of our pelagic trips.

There have been a few articles pubished about seabirds brought shore by
hurricanes; I don't have them in front of me, but I know Fussell wrote
one about hurricane David, which took place in 1979, so it would have
been in the Chat in 1980 probably, and more recently there was an
article in North American Birds about the '96 storms.  NAB, which was
previously known as American Birds and Field Notes has also had some
good discussion about hurricanes and their effects on birds in the
regional reports and the Changing Seasons column in many past issues.
Anyone who is serious about birding should be a subscriber, though it
might be difficult to obtain past issues from way back.  Likewise, the
Chat enumerates many storm related records from the last quarter century
or so of fall reports.  I really don't have time to dig around for more
references, so I'll defer to Harry, Ricky, and others for that, while I
get things secure here for the storm that might be coming our way.

Generally, most of the seabirds brought ashore by these systems will be
along and east of the eye track.  Significant rainfall can make lots of
temporary habitat for shorebirds.  But high winds, driving rain, falling
trees, downed power-lines, and rising floodwaters can make it dangerous
to be out, especially when it's dark, so be careful if you do go out.
And remember, it's really better for our seabirds if these storms stay
out to sea.  I realize that it is a natural event, but man has dealt
such a blow to some species like the Cahow, that they need all the help
they can get.

Brian Patteson
Hatteras, NC
brian@patteson.com
www.seabirding.com