Apologies for the cross-postings to those of you already on Brian Patteson's=
=20
mailing list; I thought I would pass on his notes on the first nine trips of=
=20
the spring pelagic season in North Carolina, which was, arguably, the best=20
season in history for rarer species and for a variety of pelagic species. =20
It does make one wonder what flies unseen off the Virginia capes .....=20
Patteson writes:
"It has been a busy time for us here on the Outer Banks this May. We ran
nine pelagic trips in nine days despite blowing an engine in Hatteras on
Memorial Day. Over the course of those nine trips, we saw 21 species of
pelagic seabirds including several rarities. Highlights included one
Bermuda Petrel, five Herald Petrels (three trips), five Fea=E2=80=99s Petrel=
s
(four trips), four Red-billed Tropicbirds, a White-tailed Tropicbird,
South Polar Skua, Long-tailed Jaeger, Roseate and Arctic Terns, and an=20
unprecedented showing of Sooty Terns for spring. We also saw some rarely se=
en=20
cetaceans including
several beaked whales and a nice herd of Clymene Dolphin. We are in the
process of updating the website with trip lists and images of birds and
cetaceans seen last month. =20
Though we were unable to run our trips in Hatteras last weekend because
of the breakdown on Memorial Day, the Miss Hatteras is back in service
with a new port engine, and we will be running trips here this weekend.
Space is available on both Saturday and Sunday, and these will be the
only trips here until mid July. For more information about all of our
trips please visit our website at http://www.seabirding.com/ or call me
at (252) 986-1363 evenings between 7 and 9 PM EDT as I am usually
offshore most days this time of year.
Thanks, and we hope to see you on the boat.
Brian Patteson
Seabirding
Hatteras, NC
brian@xxxxxxxxxxxx"
From my past records, I find that only a few species have ever been recorded=
=20
on spring trips that have not been noted in 2003 so far: Brown Noddy, Sabine=
's=20
Gull, Northern Fulmar, Red Phalarope [seen on land at Pea Island this year],=
=20
Black-legged Kittiwake, and Dovekie [at Cape Point during a seabird flight].=
=20
In addition, a non-South-Polar Skua has been recorded on two different trips=
=20
in the past. =20
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