Fellow Birders,
As many are aware, Brian Patteson led a group of about 20 out of Lynnhaven
Inlet on Saturday to kick off the winter pelagic season here in Virginia.
There are 4 more trips coming up, with the next one (sold out) leaving on
December 12th. The highlight birds were Northern Fulmar, Great Shearwater,
Red Phalaropes, Razorbills, and a Jaeger closer inshore to Virginia Beach
on the trip out. Gannets and Bonaparte's Gulls by the thousands also were
exciting to see.
For the last couple of years, I've always written a little blog/journal
entry pertaining to the birding I've done each week. Since this pelagic
trip was my first, a healthy portion of my weekly entry pertains to it. If
anyone wants to learn more about the birds we encountered, the entry is
viewable here with a few of my favorite photographs from the last week
spent outdoors: http://www.rbnature.com/blog/
For those who don't care to read through it, but want to check out some of
the photographs, I uploaded about 50 of my favorites from the day, those
can be found here: http://www.rbnature.com/galleries/weekly/
Please check them out if you feel inclined to do so. I figured this might
get the folks heading out this coming weekend a bit more excited for the
trip since it is just a couple days away. For those heading out this
Saturday from Virginia Beach, I hope you're treated to as many or more
birds than we had last week, it was a great time and an outing I'll always
remember! Also, it was great to get to meet so many of the birders I've
known only in name only from reading listserve & eBird reports.
Rob Bielawski
Virginia Beach, VA
