Hi Tom, Phil & All,
Not true about the scopolamine, Tom, I got seasick just reading this!
But maybe that's just because my one pelagic trip (out of Depoe Bay on
an extremely choppy winter day, as a birthday present -- one of Greg
Gillson's trips, co-guided by Matt Hunter). I still wonder if there was
any connection between that birthday present and the life insurance
policy that I took out not long before that ;-)
It wound up with nearly every single birder except me, Paula Vanderheul,
Amy Schoener, and Terry Steele turning green and puking over the
railing. Paula, Amy and I stayed clear of that by riding on the front
end of the boat, so we froze half to death, but at least we didn't get
sick. I tried to go in the cabin to warm up once but I immediately
started feeling sick, so I went back out on deck and stayed there for
the rest of the trip.
I'm not sure how Terry did it since it was also his first time offshore
on a small boat, but he did even better, chopping chum while most of the
rest of the paying passengers were volunteering their own chum over the
railing. Terry and I were the only ones still on deck when we picked up
a Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel pedaling off over the water. A little farther
on I spotted what I called out as a Xantus's Murrelet (well honestly I
had no idea so that was my best guess). But the captain backed up to the
GPS coordinates where I called it out, and it turned out to be a very
cooperative Ancient Murrelet that swam past the boat along both sides,
not more than 30 feet out.
Even the folks who were still green around the gills dragged themselves
out of the cabin and got to see close-up views of an Ancient Murrelet. I
sure hope that compensated for the rest of the "pelagic experience"!!!
Anyway Phil, good spotting! In my view this is the way that smart people
do their pelagic birding.
Happy birding,
Joel
That's quite the pelagic trip, Phil, no scopolamine required. Nice
finds!
-----Original Message-----
Phil Pickering wrote:
Boiler Bay
1 LAYSAN ALBATROSS (distant seen by Peter)
2 BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS
8000+ Northern Fulmar (steady 10-50/minute most
beyond 1 mile, very roughly 10% pale-end)
1 Buller's Shearwater (Christopher)
500+ Pink-footed Shearwater (many close in early
but then shifting further and further out, only a
few detected after 10:30)
1 BLACK-VENTED SHEARWATER
1+ Short-tailed Shearwater
2000+ Sooty Shearwater
12 Leach's Storm-Petrel
5 Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel
8000+ Red Phalarope (increasing late)
1 LONG-TAILED JAEGER (Peter)
9 Parasitic Jaeger
56 Pomarine Jaeger (increasing late)
8 jaeger sp.
1 Sabine' Gull
24 Ancient Murrelet
80 Marbled Murrelet (most S)
80 Cassin's Auklet
16 Rhinoceros Auklet
