Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 20:29:53 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Paul A. Guris" Subject: Results of March 15 Lewes, DE Pelagic MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit After a brutal winter that forced the cancellation of trips from Belmar, NJ and Cape May, NJ (twice each!), we finally were able to set sail on Saturday. I guess our bad karma was due to be balanced, and the weather was fantastic. Temperatures were mild, winds nearly non-existent, and seas started out nearly flat, though they built all the way up to calm by the end of the day. We left the dock at 6:05 AM with 68 participants, 8 leaders, my business manager (who is also my wife), two mates, the Captain, his daughter, and his dog Mariner. Highlights for the trip were a sweep of the remotely reasonable alcids (i.e. not Black Guillemot), a good Fulmar count, Red Phalarope, some very cooperatie Fin Whales, and several groups of Common Dolphins. We had one Razorbill which sat for us, other flyby Razorbills (in both MD and DE waters), one adult Puffin (MD), 4 Dovekies (MD), one Common Murre (MD) in winter plumage, a Thick-billed Murre (DE) coming into breading plumage, and two groups of Red Phalaropes including 3 cooperative enough to be videotaped (MD). We had 106 Northern Fulmar including a group of about 80 around a piece of a very old and decayed whale carcass, and one in DE waters. We also had stellar views of two Fin Whales, and Common Dolphins rode the bow for us. Lowlights were missing Kittiwake, and an enormous lack of gulls in general. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our leaders for doing a great job of both spotting birds as well as getting participants on them. Our leaders for the day were Mary Gustafson, Mike Fritz, George Armistead, Marshall Iliff, Mark Hoffman (leader and keeper of the list), Bruce Peterjohn, Colin Campbell, and myself. I'd also like to thank my wife for all her help with the signups, and her enthusiasm when it comes to showing birds to other people. I'd also like to thank our participants who were a wonderful group of people to spend the day with. The totals for the trip are: 20 Common Loon 21 Red-throated Loon 106 Northern Fulmar 186 Northern Gannet 15 Red Phalarope 6 Bonaparte's Gull 427 Herring Gull 4 Lesser Black-backed Gull 14 Great Black-backed Gull 4 Dovekie 20 Razorbill 1 Common Murre 1 Thick-billed Murre 15 large alcid sp. 1 Atlantic Puffin 6 Fin Whale 43 Common Dolphin -Paul Paul A. Guris See Life Paulagics P.O. Box 161 Green Lane, PA 18054 www.paulagics.com 215-234-6805 paul@paulagics.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================