George Jett wrote:  
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>Next morning I took a short pelagic on the Judith M out of Ocean City.  There are no formal summer pelagic's until August this year, and I am concerned that the Sooty Shearwaters will have long passed though Maryland waters by late summer.  I had good numbers of Common Tern around the boat as we motored out into the open waters.  Click, click, click - another upgrade from the Hart Miller Island trip.  
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>The trip was a fishing trip, and I was the only birder on board so I had plenty of room up top.  About an hour into the four hour trip I spotted a larger two tone bird flying toward the boat.  Not my target bird but a shearwater.  As the bird came closer I got the camera on it and again click, click, click. ( I use digital so I can click as much as I want.)  Viewing the images I determined the species to be a Greater Shearwater.  Not a bad fine.  The only other species of note were a few distant Wilson's Storm Petrels.  Crappy click, click, click.
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My family and I are going to Ocean City at the end of July for our vacation.  Is there a decent probability of seeing these types of pelagic birds from an offshore fishing trip during that time?  My wife and kids love to fish, so we would probably go on one of these boat trips anyway.  Getting to see and photograph some seabirds would be a big bonus for me.

Thanks,

Monroe Harden
Havre de Grace, MD