Hi Texbirders and Pelagic Fans,
The Texas Pelagics Black-capped Petrel chase trip for this Sunday will being
going, weather permitting. We have 23 participants. If we can add just 2
more people the fare will be $350. The more we get the lower the fare will
be. The first weather forecast for this Sunday just came out and to my
surprise the forecast is for a reasonable 3-5 foot seas. Fortunately the
cold front will be blowing through Friday night and seas will be calming
down after that on Saturday and Sunday.
Plus keep in mind that hotels are much cheaper by more than 70 % in Port
Aransas now than they were back over the summer when we ran our July trip
from Port A. And you don't have to drive all the way to South Padre Island.
You'll definitely save more money on hotels and gas than the extra amount
you'll be paying for this extra-long Texas Pelagic adventure. For instance
the Super 8 in Aransas Pass is only $60/ night for this weekend.
Remember this is an 18 hour trip. We will have a full day 10+ hours in deep
waters to search for seabirds. Our 12 hour trips only get 4 hours in deep
water. 16 hour trips get about 8 hours off the shelf in pelagic depth
waters.
As a reminder over the weekend of Nov 5th while on a 48-hour tuna fishing
trip Jon McIntyre photographed 2 separate Black-capped Petrels far offshore
of Port Aransas. Jon initially identified these two photographed birds as
Great Shearwaters in the field and didn't realize they were Black-capped
Petrels until reviewing his photographs. It is possible there were a few
other BCPE's out there that were not photographed and Jon admits he may have
misidentified as Great Shearwaters as well. This very rare petrel has only
been seen two other times in Texas on Pelagic trips on 5/28/1994 and
7/26/1997. These recent sightings are significant in that it may indicate
some weather or food event that has brought a at least a few of these birds
into Texas Gulf of Mexico waters."
To quote Jon from his Facebook posts:
Jon McIntyre: "I had 5 birds this trip (I only photographed 2) that I called
Great Shearwaters because of the dark cap and white rump- the two I
photographed turned out to be BC Petrels. We had a 48-hr trip on Wed and I
saw 2 birds that I called Great Shearwaters but no photos. I had one bird
last Saturday on a 48hr I also called a Great Shearwater with no photos.
Sure makes me wonder what they really were!"
Jon McIntyre: "An outstanding 48hr fishing trip aboard the "Pelican" this
weekend. In addition to the Black-Capped Petrels I found we saw 10 Cory's
Shearwaters, 3 Masked Booby, 1 Brown Booby, 1 Audubon's Shearwater, 2
Pomarine Jaegers, a Sperm Whale, a Loggerhead Sea Turtle, a 632 pound
Shortfin Mako Shark, Blue Marlin, and more! Sorry for the poor quality of
pics- they were taken through a dirty window!"
This is an incredibly exciting and unprecedented opportunity to chase an
exceptionally rare seabird for Texas. An opportunity not likely to be
repeated for a long time, if ever, since it's been 20 years since the last
Texas sighting of a Black-capped Petrel.
A few people have asked what other birds can be seen at this season offshore
Texas. Short answer is I'm not sure because there haven't been any true
Texas Pelagics at this time of year, aside from the tuna fisherman. And
without them and thanks to Jon McIntyre we wouldn't have known about the
BCPE's . But certainly all the Jaegers are most common in the winter. Masked
Boobies are apparently still around. Cory's (Scopoli's) Shearwaters should
be present. Great Shearwaters are also another possibility. It is probably
too late for Audubon's, but Manx is a possibility. Storm-petrels are
probably not present. Rare Gulls are a possibility, Sabine's, and maybe rare
terns, Arctic? Also Texas only South Polar Skua was found in mid-October.
If you are interested please email, text or call me as soon as possible.
More information can be found here on my website.:
<http://texaspelagics.com/2016/11/09/11-13-2016-bcpe/>
http://texaspelagics.com/2016/11/09/11-13-2016-bcpe/
Good seabirding,
Gary Hodne
The Woodlands, TX
281-684-5425
<http://www.TexasPelagics.com> www.TexasPelagics.com
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