Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 20:49:27 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Paul A. Guris" Subject: Newly Scheduled - April 12 Lewes, DE Pelagic MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit We have tentatively reserved the 85' Thelma Dale IV at Fisherman's Wharf in Lewes, DE for a pelagic on Saturday, April 12. This is somewhat of an unexplored time for Maryland and Delaware pelagic waters. The boat is comfortable, has a heated cabin, full walkaround main deck, an upper deck, and has a top end of about 20 knots. Our hope is to intercept the large schools of Mackerel and Herring heading north at this time. Our hypothesis is that Great Skua may return north with these large schools of fish. There should be plenty of Gannets attracted by these schools, and Great Skuas are perfectly capable of kleptoparasitizing them. We know that Great Skua occurs in the winter off Hatteras and Virginia Beach, we know they are rarely found locally on late Feb. / early March trips, and we know they are never found on late May trips. Perhaps they return with the fish? Other possibilities at this time should be Fulmar, lingering alcids (Puffin has been seen into June off Delaware), Red Phalarope, Manx Shearwater, jaegers, and whales, particularly fish-eating whales such as Fin, Humpbacked, Minke, and Long-finned Pilot Whale. If you are interesting in this trip, please let us know as soon as possible. We need about 30 people to make this trip go, and we'll take a maximum of 40. If somebody charters the boat out from under us before we are prepared to commit, the trip will have to be cancelled. The trip will be for a full 12 hours. Here are the specifics: Date: Sat., 04/12 Time: 6:00 AM - approx 6:00 PM Cost: $100 Hope to see you aboard. -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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================