Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 14:44:11 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Re: Lewes Pelagic Comments: cc: geogearmistead@hotmail.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, Norm provided a good account of the trip, I would add only a few additional comments. This was undoubtedly by best pelagic trip off the mid-Atlantic. Though the trip out was slow with only 4 single sightings of shearwaters before the 30 fathom line, one reached, the trawlers fishing along the 30 fathom line had such an entourage of birdlife that we were never bored the rest of the day. Fortunately for Maryland listers, we had crossed the state line by the time we found the first trawler, which had 50 Sooty and 15 Greater Shearwaters around it. The first ATLANTIC PUFFIN was a first-summer type on the water very near the boat. Good loooks had by all and photos by several (including myself). The SOUTH POLAR SKUA appeared minutes later, full credit to Jim Stasz as he picked it powering in to harass shearwaters. For the next 25 minutes it bombarded shearwaters and then rested on the water as the entire boat gawked, discussed skua ID, and took photos (6+ people with cameras). Some of the on water shots will be full frame in perfect light. This was a dark morph bird and perhaps a tricky ID problem, but it showed a monotone back color and lack of any warm rufous tones, which, along with date, is consistent with South Polar not Great. It was a non-juvenile bird, by virtue of all dark feet and some molting wing feathers. Pending committee acceptance this will provide Maryland's 3rd well-documented record of 5 reports. Much searching later failed to provide additional species (save 5 Cory's and the Chimney Swift mentioned by Norm) though before the trawlers Andy Ednie and I saw a Manx Shearwater that few others on the boat were able to count. After several hours birding the trawlers we crossed north into Delaware waters where the scene was the same and Delaware year listers were pleased to see 3 shearwaters, the puffin, and Bridled Tern. Finally I should mention that the Captain (Jack) and the mate (Mark) were one of the best I've ever been on a trip with, rivalling Spurgeon Stowe on the Miss Hatteras. They were amenable to any whim we had and even stayed out an hour late for us, all this after a 4 day no-sleep no-shower fishing trip offshore. Captain Jack really seemed to enjoy the birds and the birders, and had consummate skill at working the boat close to shearwater flocks, cutting the engine, and giving us GREAT looks. My recollection of the trip list is below: Trip left at 4 am and returned at 5 pm. We were in MD waters from about 0930 to 1200. We crossed the MD line some 35+ mi offshore near the 20 fathom line, thus, inshore species are poorly represnted in the MD counts. Common Loon 22 [only 2 in MD waters, a surprising count to me] Sooty Shearwater 360 [2/3 in MD] Greater Shearwater 130 [2/3 in MD] Cory's Shearwater 9 [5 in MD] Manx Shearwater 1 [in MD] Wilson's Storm-Petel 350 [1/3 in MD waters] Leach's Storm-Petrel 1 [in DE waters] Northern Gannet 12+ [ZERO in MD waters] Common Tern 8 in offshore zone [4in MD waters] BRIDLED TERN 1 [adult resting on board in DE waters, c. 15 mi offshore] SOUTH POLAR SKUA 1 [non-juv dark morph in MD waters, 30 fathom line] Pomarine Jaeger 2 [1 subad, 1 ad in DE waters, both northbound] Laughing Gull 2 in offshore zone [1 ad in MD waters] ATLANTIC PUFFIN 3 [all 1st winters, 1 MD waters, 2 in DE waters - perhaps the most amazing species and count of the trip. To my knowledge there are 4 prior late spring records: Maryland records May 5, May 25, and May 30 - the latter in last years' trip out of Lewes and literally on the state line with Delaware. The fourth is a late spring/summer record off NC. Three is certainly a high count and a late date at least for MD! To my knowledge, there were only two in DE waters, not 3 as Norm reported] Chimney Swift 1 [over MD waters and headed for shore!] OTHERS Loggerhead Sea Turtle 2 [DE waters] Leatherback Sea Turtle 1 [see by myself only, head popped up briefly, IMMENSE animal - DE waters] Mola-Mole (Ocean Sunfish) 3 [1 in MD waters] Bottlenosed Dolphin c. 25 in several groups [group of 14 approached boat in MD waters] Good birding, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================