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Outer Banks weekend, Feb. 17-18



Some of you may be wondering about the pelagic trip scheduled from
Hatteras Feb. 17, and whether it went out and what was seen. Well, it
was weathered out on Saturday, Feb. 17, so a number of us spent most of
the day at Cape Point looking thru gulls. We (Derb Carter, Jeff Pippen,
Mike Tove, Wayne Irvin, John Fussell, Susan Campbell, Bert Fisher, Leto
Copeley, myself, and others) found the following:

Thayer's Gull - 3 adults, and possibly one or two others that might be
hybrids; record state total
Iceland Gull - one adult Kumlien's. Adults are seldom seen in NC
Glaucous Gull - one immature, first winter, named Snowball, who has been
at the point all winter
Lesser B-b Gull - 20 or more
likely hybrids: LBBG x Herring - 2 or more
	Glaucous x Herring - 1
possible hybrids: Iceland x Thayer's - one adult
	Thayer's x Herring - one adult
I mention the latter two only because the characters seemed intermediate
between the two species

Also at the point, one Peregrine Falcon eating a gull, one Merlin, and a
Little Gull was reported by one observer only.

Sunday, the boat did go offshore, into a 15-20 knot N wind. The seas
were 5 feet, and up to 8-9 feet on a few occasions. We did go N up the
coast to opposite Avon, then headed E to where we could see the fog and
clouds over the Gulf Stream well to the E. We then worked S and SW back.
It was a VERY dull trip until around noon, with hundreds of Razorbill,
but NO other pelagic birds! Then, things began to happen -- a
Black-capped Petrel in the cold waters!, a Fulmar or two, and then -- !
Here are the results:

Black-capped Petrel  1  a surprise in the colder waters
Northern Fulmar   3  
Great Skua  3   about 4 passes by the boat; Brian considers we had 3
birds involved
Little Gull  4  all adults in big flocks of Bonaparte's Gulls
Black-legged Kittiwake  1  immature  very low number
Red Phalarope   62  60 in one flock
Razorbill   820 or more    everywhere
ATLANTIC PUFFIN   24   scattered here and there, on the water with good
looks, at the E-most point of the trip off Avon.  I think Brian
(Patteson) got good photos. This is the 4th state record, with the
previous high count of 2, I believe. This is the first seen from a
Hatteras pelagic trip.

Humpback Whale   7
Common Dolphin  10 or so
Bottlenose Dolphin   some
Loggerhead Turtle   1


Quite a good trip, especially with the Puffins. Great Skuas are nice,
but the majority of winter trips have gotten them in recent years. Brian
will make an announcement about a new trip in upcoming weeks to look for
the Puffins and other alcids, etc.

Harry LeGrand
Raleigh, NC