This Saturday June 4th is the first Texas Pelagic of 2016 that departs from
the Osprey dock on South Padre Island. Right now the weather forecast is for
calm 1-3' seas. There is still time to join this trip if it now occurs to
you that with good weather you would like to do it. Or if you want to go to
the Rio Grande Valley to chase a rarity and would like to increase your odds
of finding some cool birds by taking this pelagic trip. There is nothing
quite as enjoyable as spending a day far out to sea with a bunch of other
pelagic birding fans on a day when the seas are calm. This trip is still
undersubscribed so there is plenty of room.
This trip is being run in early June because it is the best time of year for
Storm-Petrels. Last year on June 11th a Wilson's Storm-Petrel was found off
Port O'Connor by Petra Hockey. We are expecting to find numerous Band-rumped
Storm-Petrels and 6 out of only 7 previous June trips have found Leach's
Storm-Petrels. Last year was a record year for Leach's Storm-Petrels in the
gulf with over 100 being seen on one trip alone. But as far as we know now
that was an anomaly. Recent research studies on the Band-rumped
Storm-Petrel complex indicates there are likely 4 taxa and some or all of
these may eventually be granted full species status. The taxa occurring in
Texas waters is referred to as Grant's Storm-Petrel. But there is some
photographic evidence suggesting one other taxa, the Madeiran Storm-Petrel,
also occurs in Texas offshore waters. We really need to photograph every
Storm-Petrel we see to help sort out the taxonomy of Storm-Petrels seen
offshore Texas.
Early June is also an excellent time for Pelagics on the East Coast. As one
of our leaders John O'Brien stated "I am particularly keen to do an early
season trip because that is the time that corresponds to a very interesting
diversity of Pterodroma in North Carolina. We can always hope." And I agree
whole heartedly. It really is a season that deserves to be explored
offshore Texas.
Given such sparse coverage in Texas Pelagic waters at this time of year
there is still a lot we don't know about what birds are present at this time
of year offshore. A number of our leaders have really wanted to run a trip
in early June to find out more about the offshore seabird's distribution and
because they think some cool discoveries could happen at this time of year.
Please contact me if you're interested in joining this adventure. All the
important information can be found here.
http://texaspelagics.com/2016-schedule-2/
Also if you're interested in receiving our occasional newsletter you can
sign up for it on the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/TexasPelagicsPage/app/100265896690345/ or just send
me your name, address and email.
Good seabirding,
Gary Hodne
The Woodlands, TX
Garyhodne (at) gmail.com
www.TexasPelagics.com
Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
//www.freelists.org/list/texbirds
Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission
from the List Owner