Message:

[

Previous   Next

]

By Topic:

[

Previous   Next

]

Subject:

August 26 Charter Birding/Fishing Trip from Lewes, DE

From:

"Paul A. Guris"

Reply-To:

Date:

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 14:47:41 -0400

A group of 8 intrepid souls went out of Lewes, DE on an overnight birding and
fishing trip.  This is the second year we've done this trip aboard the
Lewestown Lady, a 42' charter boat owned by the same people we run our normally
scheduled pelagics with.  It's greatly supported by a small cadre of fanatical
Delaware listers, and we target the DE pelagic waters of the Wilmington Canyon.

Birding highlights were 2 Leach's Storm-Petrels (including one in Maryland
waters, which we drifted into "by mistake"), one Long-tailed Jaeger (a fairly
dark brown juv.), and one Bridled Tern (seen in both MD and DE as we were just
crossing the state line).  A number of Cory's, 4 Audubon's, and 1 Greater
Shearwater were also seen.  One of the Cory's seen well looked very good for
the diomedea subspecies (assuming the separation criteria being discussed are
correct).

The mammals were excellent.  We had a Cuvier's Beaked Whale (a 1st for everybody
aboard outside of the Outer Banks), a group of Pantropical Spotted Dolphins (a
lifer for me!), Risso's Dolphin, Pilot Whales, and 2 migrating bats.  We could
not ID the Pilot Whales to species, though we suspect that they are
Short-finneds due to the nearly 80 degree blue water we encountered.

Finally, the fishing was very good too.  Total catch included a 70 pound Bigeye
Tuna, two 20+ pound Wahoos, and 41 Dolphin (Mahi Mahi) up to 17 pounds.

Here are the final counts.

 43 Cory's Shearwater (10 in MD)
  1 Greater Shearwater
  4 Audubon's Shearwater
371 Wilson's Storm-Petrel (240 in Maryland)
  2 Leach's Storm-Petrel (1 in MD)
  1 Red-necked Phalarope
  1 Long-tailed Jaeger
  1 Bridled Tern
  2 tern sp.

  1 Cuvier's Beaked Whale
 50 Pilot Whale
 25 Risso's Dolphin
 50 Pantropical Spotted Dolphin
  2 bat sp.

  5 Loggerhead Sea Turtle


A report on our scheduled pelagic run the next day will follow shortly.


-PAG

Paul A. Guris
See Life Paulagics
P.O. Box 161
Green Lane, PA  18054
www.paulagics.com
215-234-6805