Hi Texbirders and Pelagic Fanatics,
The first Texas Pelagic of the 2015 season is this Saturday July 11th. This
is an extended 16 hour trip which will be the first ever Texas Pelagic to
explore the Camel's Head Seamount, located about 75 miles offshore South
Padre Island. This is sure to be an exciting trip and undoubtable the only
opportunity to be the first to explore a part of Texas that has never been
birded before.
A number of exceedingly rare seabirds have been seen already in offshore
Texas in 2015. Here is the rundown on what's been seen so far in 2015:
1. A Great Shearwater seen on May 15th offshore Port Aransas by Jon
McIntyre on the Pelican fishing boat.
2. A Brown Booby seen on May 27th offshore Port Aransas by Jon McIntyre on
the Pelican fishing boat
3. A second Brown Booby seen on May 30th offshore Port Aransas by Jon
McIntyre on the Pelican fishing boat.
4. A Wilson's Storm-Petrel seen on June 11th offshore Port O'Connor by
Petra Hockey on a private fishing trip. Potentially a First State Record if
accepted!
5. A Sooty Shearwater seen on June 26th just off the jetties of South Padre
Island by Brad McKinney on a fishing trip aboard the Osprey II.
6. Brown Noddy seen 1 mile out from the Port Aransas Jetties in May (?) by
Jon McIntyre.
July is still a good month for Storm-Petrels and we'd expect to find
Band-rumped Storm-Petrels and possibly Leach's Storm-Petrels. Other
regular seabirds we'd expect to find on this trip include: Cory's
(Scopoli's) Shearwater, Audubon's Shearwater, Masked Booby, Magnificent
Frigatebird, Sooty and Bridled Terns. For a completed rundown on what's
possible in July in Offshore Texas check out my Bargraph Checklist at:
http://texaspelagics.com/seabird-occurance/seabirds-bargraph-checklist/
There have been amazing seabird sightings made on Texas Pelagics over the
Years. These include: Yellow-nosed Albatross in 2003, Great, Sooty and Manx
Shearwaters, Black-capped Petrels, Red-billed Tropicbirds (rare), Brown
Booby (rare) and Brown Noddy (very rare).
The list of Marine mammals is equally impressive: Last year we had about 20
Sperm Whales in 4-5 pods, and huge pod of abut 250 Melon-headed whales.
Other marine mammals sighted on Texas Pelagics include: Atlantic Spotted
Dolphins, Rough-toothed Dolphins, Short-finned Pilot Whales, Risso's
Dolphins and the most common Pelagic Bottlenosed Dolphins. Whale Sharks are
regularly sighted, in addition to all manner of other fish and sea turtles.
There is still space available to join this trip. If you'd like to go
please email me for instructions ASAP. The forecast is for seas in the 2-3
foot with occasional 5 footers in the deep water.
Good Seabirding,
Gary Hodne
The Woodlands, TX
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