Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 14:40:45 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Pelagic Results MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, Since none of the other MD birders on yesterday's pelagic trip out of Lewes, DE have posted on the trip, I thought I would go ahead and give a summary. Other MD birders who I knew or recognized on the trip were Jim Stasz, Paul O'Brien, Joan DeCarli, Matt Hafner (and his friend whose name I didn't get), and many other MD birders who may or may not be on the listserve. My apologies for not including their names (I haven't fit all the names with the faces yet). Anyway, only four pelagic species were tallied in Maryland waters: CORY'S SHEARWATER GREATER SHEARWATER SOOTY SHEARWATER WILSON'S STORM-PETREL I didn't get the numbers, but they were very low. This trip was extremely disappointing to Maryland birders, particularly in comparison to the two trips run last June, which may have been the best ever made out of Lewes. When last week's pelagic trip was cancelled due to high seas, we may have lost our opportunity for good finds this year, as the winds were much more favorable then (sadly, there will not be a September trip out of Lewes this year). As a whole, however, it was a pretty good pelagic trip, as there were more interesting birds found in DE. In addition to the four species above, Delaware waters also produced LEACH'S STORM-PETREL, POMARINE JAEGER, and the best bird of the day, SOUTH POLAR SKUA (third Del. record), which flew OVER the boat again, and again, and again. No lie, many of us thought the bird was going to land ON the boat. It did land on the water not too far away. It may have been the shark liver put in the water by the mate, who knows, but that bird gave us a show that none will forget. Of the thousands of hours of cumulative pelagic experience on that boat, everyone I polled had never had a look at SP Skua like that. It was by far the best of my dozen or so sightings of this bird. Sadly, the bird was seen not much more than a mile from Maryland waters. In addition to the pelagic species mentioned, there were several other land-accessable species seen out at sea, such as Laughing Gull, Royal and Common Terns, Common Loon and N. Gannet. Oh, the other marine critters were quite spectacular, with FABULOUS looks at FIN WHALE, COMMON DOLPHIN, and LOGGERHEAD TURTLE. By the way, after the pelagic, Joan and I joined Matt and friend and several Del. birders at Bombay Hook to look for the Little Egret, but did not score. The avocets and Black Terns were a nice consolation. Stan Arnold Glen Burnie blackrail@earthlink.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================