I've posted photos from my 10-day run of pelagic trips in a new album on my SmugMug site; the link is below in my signature line. I was serving as one of the leaders for Brian Patteson's pelagic trips (http://www.seabirding.com) to the Gulf Stream out of the Outer Banks. I spent the first 9 days on Brian's boat the Stormy Petrel II out of Hatteras, and the last day on the Country Girl running from Manteo (Oregon Inlet). Over the 10 day period, we compiled an awesome list of birds and other wildlife, and the photography was fabulous. It was a privilege getting to "work" with such birding luminaries as Steve Howell, Ned Brinkley, Brian Sullivan, and George Armistead, and I made some new friends in the process. The highlight was finding my first Bermuda Petrel; not to put too fine a point on it, but it has only been my most wanted bird on the planet Earth for the last 15 years or so. There were too many other highlights to list here. I'm sure I'll be returning one or more times as the summer progresses; hopefully some more of you will join me (Tennesseans Ron Hoff, Dollyann Myers, Virginia Fairchild, Ken Oeser, and Kin Cosner all were on the boat with me one or more days). Here's the list of birds and other wildlife I recorded offshore on these 10 trips. I've put an asterisk beside the ones for which I have good photos in the online gallery: BIRDS: Common Loon *Black-capped Petrel *Trinidade Petrel Fea's Petrel (including 4 in one day, with two in the same binocular view!) Bermuda Petrel *Cory's Shearwater (both subspecies) Greater Shearwater *Sooty Shearwater *Audubon's Shearwater Manx Shearwater *Wilson's Storm-Petrel *Band-rumped Storm-Petrel *Leach's Storm-Petrel European Storm-Petrel (on two different days) Red-billed Tropicbird *Northern Gannet *Masked Booby Cattle Egret Osprey Black-bellied Plover Dowitcher sp. Spotted Sandpiper *Ruddy Turnstone Sanderling Red Knot Semipalmated Sandpiper Least Sandpiper *Red-necked Phalarope *Red Phalarope (one breeding male and one breeding female on different days) *Pomarine Jaeger *Parasitic Jaeger Long-tailed Jaeger (probable, but distant) Herring Gull Laughing Gull *Common Tern Arctic Tern Bridled Tern Sooty Tern (probable, but distant) Black Tern *Barn Swallow OTHER WILDLIFE Portuguese Man-O'-War Bottlenose Dolphin (offshore subspecies) *Clymene Dolphin Spotted Dolphin Pilot Whale (presumed Short-finned) *Loggerhead Turtle *Dolphin (Mahi Mahi) Blue Marlin regards, -- Chris Sloan Nashville, TN My photos: http://csloan.smugmug.com =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ MAP RESOURCES Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________