[texbirds] Re: Texas Pelagics last trip for 2014 - Saturday October 25th from South Padre Island
- From: Brush Freeman <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Gary Hodne <garyhodne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 20:12:50 -0500
Oh man!...An Oct. trip!! Should be awesome. What an incredible trip you
folks had this last w/e....Melon-heads would be a lifer for this fellow too!
**********************************************************************
Brush Freeman
503-551-5150 Cell
120 N. Red Bud Trail. Elgin, Tx. 78621
http://texasnaturenotes.blogspot.com/
Finca Alacranes., Utley,Texas
On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 8:07 PM, Garett Hodne <garyhodne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Texbirders and Pelagic Fanatics,
> This past September 20th trip was so fantastic that we've decided to run
> one
> more last trip (weather permitting) for 2014. The date is Saturday October
> 25th, 2014. The September trip had an amazing 10 species of seabirds, a
> number that has been reached only once before in 20 years of Texas
> Pelagics.
> In addition we had 4 pods of Sperm Whales (16-18 individuals) and a huge
> pod
> of Melon-headed Whales (200+) which no one on board had ever seen before.
> Weather permitting we will cruise to the same vicinity that these mammals
> were seen on the October trip.
>
>
>
> List of seabird species seen on September 20th trip:
>
> 1. Audubon's Shearwater
>
> 2. Cory's Shearwater
>
> 3. Band-rumped Storm-Petrel
>
> 4. Bridled Tern
>
> 5. Sooty tern
>
> 6. Magnificent Frigatebird
>
> 7. Masked Booby
>
> 8. Pomarine Jaeger
>
> 9. Parasitic Jaeger
>
> 10. Long-tailed Jaeger
>
>
>
> These are not-for-profit trips that I am organizing where the cost per
> participant is $150. If you are interested in attending this trip email me
> at garyhodne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx for more details and reservations as soon as
> possible. We need to have twenty-eight participants by Oct 8 to ensure we
> can cover the cost of the charter. Without enough participants by that
> deadline the trip may have to be cancelled. For cancellations due to not
> enough participants or rough seas preventing the trip from going full
> refunds will be made.
>
>
>
> These trips leave from the southern tip of South Padre Island, aboard the
> Osprey . The good folks at Osprey Cruises have been involved with Texas
> Pelagics for over 14 years and their captains are familiar with where we
> need to go and also are quite good at spotting birds with us. These are
> all-day trips, leaving the docks at 6am, and returning 12 hours later at
> 6pm. We motor out to deep-water (takes approximately 3 hours to get there),
> spend the next several hours working the area off the shelf in deep pelagic
> waters and then return back to dry land by around 6pm. Leaders for this
> trip will include Brad McKinney, Dwight Peake, Eric Carpenter, Mary
> Gustafson, Petra Hockey, Randy Pinkston and myself. Each of these leaders
> are passionate about Texas Pelagics and have more experience on them than
> anyone else in the offshore Texas Gulf of Mexico.
>
>
>
> These Gulf of Mexico Pelagic trips typically don't yield high numbers of
> birds but we seem to always make up for it with a high quality sighting or
> discovery. In the last few years, some of the better birds have included
> Red-billed Tropicbird, Great Shearwater, and Sooty Shearwater. One trip
> was
> fortunate enough to have a mixed species flock that included both Brown
> Noddy and Brown Booby in the same binocular view/camera viewfinder! And of
> course in Sept 2003 we had an incredible Yellow-nosed Albatross encounter!
> It is exciting possibilities like this that keeps folks coming back for
> more.
>
>
>
> The regular species we expect to find during the course of the season
> include Audubon's and Cory's Shearwaters, Band-rumped and Leach's
> Storm-Petrels, Bridled and Sooty Terns, Masked Booby, Pomarine Jaeger and
> Magnificent Frigatebird. A full rundown of the species list for Offshore
> Texas Pelagics can be found at:
>
> http://texaspelagics.com/pelagic-sea-birds/tx-seabirds/
>
>
>
> And of course, when there aren't great birds around, sometimes other marine
> life activity steals the show. We routinely get Bottlenose Dolphins and
> Atlantic spotted dolphins on most trips. We have had frequent encounters
> with Whale Sharks, like the August 2011 trip where an absolutely monstrous
> Whale Shark bumped into the boat. Check out the photos of it about
> half-way
> through the slide-show from that trip at:
>
> http://www.texaspelagics.com/trips/20110827/index.html
>
>
>
> Large pods of Sperm Whales have been encountered on three trips since 2005.
> When you factor in that only about 12 of our Texas Pelagics have been to
> the
> really deep waters favored by Sperm Whales the odds of seeing them on a
> Texas Pelagic are decent now that we've modified our course to head
> easterly
> to deeper waters. In addition we have had encounters with large pods of
> Risso's Dolphins, Short-fined Pilot Whales, Melon-headed Whales and
> Rough-toothed Dolphins.
>
>
>
> More information on these trips and on Texas Pelagics (including photos
> from
> previous trips and what species can be expected) can be found at this
> informative website:
>
> http://www.texaspelagics.com/
>
>
>
> Also there is a Facebook page for Texas Pelagics.
>
> https://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-Pelagics/173057036078295?ref=hl
>
>
>
> And a Facebook group for Texas Pelagics.
>
> https://www.facebook.com/groups/219671194850690/
>
>
>
> Please check these out for more information as well
>
>
>
> I hope you'll join us.
>
>
>
> Gary Hodne
>
> The Woodlands, TX
>
>
>
>
>
> www.GarettHodne.com <http://www.garetthodne.com/>
>
>
>
>
>
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