Hi Texbirders and Seabirders,
After seeing 8 foot seas recorded by NOAA Buoy 42020 on Tuesday night and
Wednesday morning it was a relief to see a forecast for only 2 to 3 foot seas
for Saturday. And following such a phenomenal trip three weeks ago everyone at
the dock was hoping for a repeat performance today. With an early 5:30 am start
we sailed a good hour in pitch blackness. In the dark the seas seemed rougher
than 3 feet and were probably more in the 4 foot range with the occasional 5
foot swell. A brief sprinkle of rain right at first light awakened those trying
to sleep out on the open upper deck. Luckily for us as within a minute or two
our just awakened sharp-eyed leader Kelly Smith spotted our first seabird the
only Cory's Shearwater of the day before sunrise. It was very close to the boat
and passed right in front of the bow just feet away to the delight of the bow
crowd.
After a beautiful sunrise the seas were calming down some and by 8 am were more
in the 3 foot range and would continue to calm down throughout the day. It
wasn't long before we had our first 2 Audubon's Shearwaters. We would continue
to see single Audubon's Shearwaters at regular intervals up until 2pm. A
distant Masked Booby seemed uninterested in coming over to investigate us like
Boobies usually do. Looking at Dwight Peak's photos of the distant bird at
maximum zoom we wondered if it may have been an immature Northern Gannet?
(Awaiting photo confirmation of that.)
A flock of our first 6 Bridled Terns signaled our arrival in deep pelagic
waters over 600 ft. As we passed the shelf-slope break at 9:00am I announced
for everyone to be on the lookout for whale blows. Shortly thereafter as if on
cue we picked up a pod of at least 20 Atlantic Spotted Dolphins who
enthusiastically swam over for some bow-riding play time. The pod stuck with us
for at least 10 minutes and everyone got great looks, photos and videos from
the bow.
I finally decided to try my own video of the dolphins after watching a bunch of
others do the same. While I was capturing video leaning way over the bowsprit,
Tripp Davenport standing right next to me in his usual spot at the end of the
bowsprit yelled out "Whale Blow!" Only a couple other people saw it even though
it was only a couple hundred yards or less in front of us, as everyone was
focused on watching the dolphins. From the descriptions of the blow it was
definitely a Sperm Whale but it never resurfaced. We finally gave up waiting
for it to resurface and proceeded east further out to deeper water, more
vigilant than ever for more whales.
About 30 minutes later Mary Ann Beauchemin, again sitting right next to me on
the upper bow deck, yelled out "WHALE!" In just a few seconds it surfaced
briefly a second time and then that was it. It never resurfaced. John O'Brien
got a look at its blunt nose so we were able to identify it as a Kogia species
of either Pygmy or Dwarf Sperm Whale. These two species look so much alike it
is almost impossible to distinguish them in the field. And it happened so fast
that no one was able to get photos and only a few people actually saw it.
We continued cruising east out to about 2,700 feet of water at 63 miles
offshore, but it seemed there were more bids in closer. So we turned back
towards the shelf edge were we would contour the edge for about an hour. The
day continued on with a steady stream of birds singly or in pairs every 10-15
minutes. We added more Audubon's Shearwaters, Bridled Terns and Leach's
Storm-Petrels but no Band-rumped Storm-Petrels as it is late in the season for
them.
Returning to the shelf it was about an hour before we reached our first
anchored shrimp boat. Our strategy now is to chum at the shrimpers to stir up
the roosting Laughing Gulls and Royal Terns. This worked once again in
attracting one Pomarine Jaeger from out of the blue. And the 2 Magnificent
Frigatebirds that were also roosting on the boat joined in the fray.
The second shrimp boat held a large pod of about 30 Pelagic Bottlenose
Dolphins. Brad McKinney and I managed to capture some underwater video of the
dolphins with our GoPro cameras mounted to long poles. We need to work out a
better strategy with the Captain to stop the boat when the dolphins come
closest, instead of speeding up to see if they'll bow ride. I also think we
need baitfish chum to attract them in to the boat when it's sitting still. We
will eventually work out a good underwater video strategy. While Brad and I
were preoccupied with u/w video, the rest of the party was watching 2 Pomarine
Jaegers that came into the chum along with 4 Magnificent Frigatebirds and a
Masked Booby.
Overall it was a very good day. No huge numbers of birds like our August 29th
trip but a continual stream of sightings and a respectable 7 pelagic species.
The Kogia species Dwarf / Pygmy Sperm Whale was a lifer for me and the few who
actually got to see it. The Sperm Whale "blow" adds this species to our day
list even though we didn't actually see the whale, and only a couple of lucky
birders saw the blow.
Thanks to our Captain Bobby, our excellent leaders and all the participants for
contributing to an enjoyable day at sea.
Good Seabirding,
Garett Hodne
Texas Pelagics
The Woodlands, TX
PELAGIC SEABIRDS: 7 Species
Cory's Shearwater - 1
Audubon's Shearwater - 13
Leach's Storm-Petrel - 3
Magnificent Frigatebird - 8
Masked Booby - 2
Bridled Tern - 9
Pomarine Jaeger - 3
MARINE MAMMALS:
Sperm Whale - 1 (only blow seen)
Kogia sp. Whale - 1 (Dwarf / Pygmy Sperm Whale)
Atlantic Spotted Dolphins - 20
Pelagic Bottlenose Dolphins - 30
OTHER SEABIRDS:
Brown Pelican - 2 (1 seen 25 miles offshore)
Laughing Gulls - 154
Least Tern - 8
Black Tern - 105
Common Tern - 7
Royal Tern - 92
Sandwich Tern - 19
LANDBIRD MIGRANTS:
Cattle Egret 9
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 1
FISH:
Flying Fish - numerous
http://texaspelagics.com/2015/09/22/trip-report-2015-09-19/
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
