Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 18:16:49 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Fw: PARTICIPANTS NEEDED For Hatteras Pelagic Trip This Weekend MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Since some of our folks did well on a late winter pelagic out of NC last year (YN Albatross) others might be interested in this add-on trip this year. I was on the trip out of VA Beach this past weekend, where we saw over 50 puffins, over 50 razorbills, and a couple dovkie, as well as kittiwake, sooty shearwater. red phalarope, and fulmars. Stan Arnold blackrail@earthlink.net -----Original Message----- From: Brian Subject: PARTICIPANTS NEEDED For Hatteras Pelagic Trip This Weekend >Dear Seabirders, > >After having such a great pelagic trip off Hatteras on Feb. 18, we >decided to schedule one more last minute trip for the winter on March >3(4). So far, we have almost enough reservations to run the trip. If >another 5 people will commit by WEDNESDAY, we will be have just enough. >PLEASE PASS THE WORD ON TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN >GOING ON THIS TRIP. Like the two February trips that we have run here >this year, this trip is scheduled for Saturday with an obligatory >weather date on Sunday, and the fee is $95/person. It will be run aboard >the 75=92 long Miss Hatteras and will depart from Oden=92s Dock in Hatteras >Village at 0630. We thought that it would be a good idea to try to get >out at least once more this winter to >document the good flight of Razorbills and Puffins into our waters off >the Outer Banks. > >We saw over 800 Razorbills on our last Hatteras trip and a new >record high count of at least 24 Atlantic Puffins on that trip as well. >Had the seas been a bit calmer, I suspect those numbers would have been >much higher. While we did not see any Dovekies on either of our trips >here this month, there is always a chance of seeing them in early March. > >We did see a Common Murre on our trip here on Feb. 3, and I saw at least > >two birds (in flight) which I thought were murres on Sunday=92s trip. With > >the large numbers of Razorbills and puffins that we saw in a fairly >small area just inshore of the Gulf Stream, I think the conditions are >ripe for finding more murres off the Outer Banks. I have seen both >Common and Thick-billed Murres in similar conditions off Virginia and >Maryland in years past. > >After not seeing any Great Skuas on Feb. 3, we had four encounters on >the Feb. 18 trip. Over the course of running ten winter trips here >since >1994, we have seen Great Skuas on seven of them, often three or more >birds on a trip. Aside from alcids, most of the other pelagic birds were > >in low numbers, but we did see a flock of 60 Red Phalaropes, and we were > >surprised to find a Black-capped Petrel several miles inshore of the >Gulf Stream. There were also hundreds of Bonaparte=92s Gulls offshore, and > >we managed to find at least four Little Gulls among them. An albino >Northern Gannet was a shocking sight when it came up the wake and passed > >off the starboard side of the boat. The official list from the Feb. 18 >trip >follows. > >Razorbill 831 >Atlantic Puffin 24 >Black-capped Petrel 1 >Northern Fulmar 3 > Great Skua 3 > Black-legged Kittiwake 1 > Red Phalarope 62 > Little Gull 4 > Lesser Black-backed Gull 14 > > Common Dolphin 4 > Bottlenose Dolphin 54 > Humpback Whale 7 > whale sp 1 > Loggerhead Sea Turtle 1 > >Other seabirds that we have seen here on previous winter trips include >Yellow-nosed Albatross, Greater Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, Manx >Shearwater, Audubon=92s Shearwater, Dovekie, and Bridled Tern. We have >also seen both Iceland and Glaucous Gulls on a number of these trips, >and while we haven=92t yet seen Thayer=92s Gull offshore here, at least >three individuals were at Cape Point on Saturday. > >I hope that many of you can join us on the trip here on March 3(4). In >my experience, puffins are usually late winter birds that linger until >early spring off Virginia and Maryland, so I am optimistic that we can >again find good numbers of them on this next trip. > >Please let me know ASAP if you will be able to participate in the trip >on March 3(4) either via e-mail or by telephone at (252) 986-1363. > >I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO ADD that we saw over 50 puffins on a trip from >Virginia Beach yesterday, as well as at least two Dovekies. We saw far >less Razorbills than we have seen from Hatteras this winter though, >making me think this might be the hotspot for large alcids, including >murres. > >I hope that we can get enough folks to run this trip and see what's out >there. > >Thanks, > >Brian Patteson >Hatteras, NC >Brian@Patteson.com > > > > > > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================