[birdky] NC pelagic trip photos

I've posted photos from my 10-day run of pelagic trips in a new album on my SmugMug site; the link is below in my signature line. I was serving as one of the leaders for Brian Patteson's pelagic trips (http://www.seabirding.com) to the Gulf Stream out of the Outer Banks. I spent the first 9 days on Brian's boat the Stormy Petrel II out of Hatteras, and the last day on the Country Girl running from Manteo (Oregon Inlet). Over the 10 day period, we compiled an awesome list of birds and other wildlife, and the photography was fabulous. It was a privilege getting to "work" with such birding luminaries as Steve Howell, Ned Brinkley, Brian Sullivan, and George Armistead, and I made some new friends in the process.
The highlight was finding my first Bermuda Petrel; not to put too fine a point on it, but it has only been my most wanted bird on the planet Earth for the last 15 years or so. There were too many other highlights to list here.
I'm sure I'll be returning one or more times as the summer progresses; hopefully some more of you will join me (Tennesseans Ron Hoff, Dollyann Myers, Virginia Fairchild, Ken Oeser, and Kin Cosner all were on the boat with me one or more days).
Here's the list of birds and other wildlife I recorded offshore on these 10 trips. I've put an asterisk beside the ones for which I have good photos in the online gallery: 

BIRDS:
Common Loon
*Black-capped Petrel
*Trinidade Petrel
Fea's Petrel (including 4 in one day, with two in the same binocular view!)
Bermuda Petrel
*Cory's Shearwater (both subspecies)
Greater Shearwater
*Sooty Shearwater
*Audubon's Shearwater
Manx Shearwater
*Wilson's Storm-Petrel
*Band-rumped Storm-Petrel
*Leach's Storm-Petrel
European Storm-Petrel (on two different days)
Red-billed Tropicbird
*Northern Gannet
*Masked Booby
Cattle Egret
Osprey
Black-bellied Plover
Dowitcher sp.
Spotted Sandpiper
*Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Red Knot
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
*Red-necked Phalarope
*Red Phalarope (one breeding male and one breeding female on different days)
*Pomarine Jaeger
*Parasitic Jaeger
Long-tailed Jaeger (probable, but distant)
Herring Gull
Laughing Gull
*Common Tern
Arctic Tern
Bridled Tern
Sooty Tern (probable, but distant)
Black Tern
*Barn Swallow

OTHER WILDLIFE
Portuguese Man-O'-War
Bottlenose Dolphin (offshore subspecies)
*Clymene Dolphin
Spotted Dolphin
Pilot Whale (presumed Short-finned)
*Loggerhead Turtle
*Dolphin (Mahi Mahi)
Blue Marlin

regards,

--
Chris Sloan
Nashville, TN

My photos:  http://csloan.smugmug.com

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