Thankfully the wave height prediction at the NOAA page held true. The waves on the Lewes pelagic on Saturday were minimal. They were certainly the worst as we were headed out of the Delaware Bay area. If you go to the link below and click on station 41004 (near South Carolina) you'll see what the ocean can dish out as Hurricane Gaston made landfall.
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Southeast.shtml
The trip was especially nice since there were so many familiar faces. I would bet that almost half of the people on board are subscribers to MDOsprey including our illustrious listowner and his lovely wife.
A couple of things that Ed Boyd didn't mention in his follow-up post. First, there was one Bridled Tern despite the abundant BRTE habitat floating around out in the blue water. And most important, Jim Stasz slid into sole possession of first place as the top Maryland lister with the White-faced Storm-petrel. Congrats Jim! Now Mark Hoffman has to find a Yellow-headed Blackbird this year to catch up. Or Paul O'Brien needs to find a White-faced Ibis.
There were a lot of first time pelagickers. I think this was an excellent indoctrination to ocean birding though I hope they won't think that all trips are that calm!
Tyler Bell
California, Maryland
Note new email address! I'll be moving
to it full time very soon. |