Birds and Other Nature Sightings

     Last week I traveled down to St. Augustine, FL.  My daughter had a couple vacation days she needed to use and wanted to go back to her college home town.  I took the trip with her and it was my first time back there since her graduation a few years ago.  St. Augustine is in St. Johns county, just south of Jacksonville, on Florida’s northeast coast.  Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied city in the United States.  The Spanish origins of the city are preserved in much of the architecture and cobblestone streets downtown.  Down on Magnolia Street is the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park where Ponce de León supposedly discovered his legendary fountain of youth.  Over on King Street is the beautiful and historical Ponce de Leon Hall, formerly the Hotel Ponce de León, the centerpiece of Flagler College. Statues of St. Augustine’s most historic figures stand on either side of U. S. 1 at the city’s north en...

     After Christmas I went on a fishing trip and photographed several humpback whales during the day.  I submitted some of the better photos to Happywhale.com for possible individual identification.  Barely a week later I received an email that one of the whales had been identified as Saucer .  Saucer is at least seven years old as it was first photographed in 2017.  Saucer's sex and exact age have not yet been determined. The other day I received another email from Happywhale stating that two more of my whales have been identified.  One whale is named Wizard .  Wizard is a female at least 12 years old.  She was first recorded in 2012 off Maine.  The other whale does not have a name yet but is identified with a catalog number.  This whale's identification is HDRVAMn033 .  The sex of this whale has not been determined yet.  It is at least nine years old.  It was first recorded in 2015 off of Virginia. Wizard, 12...

The Friday after Christmas I got back out on the water with my friend, Captain John.  He had been chasing winter bluefin tuna lately and he had a spot for me on his boat this time.  I saw this as an opportunity to catch some maguro , spot some whales and maybe find some alcids.  It turned out to be a good time as I accomplished that trifecta. There was four of us on board and we left the dock at 6 a.m.  There was a chill in the air.  The wind was pretty much calm though, and once the sun rose high enough the air temperature was comfortable.  The water was calm with minimal two-foot swells, at well-spaced intervals.  On the way out, scoters began taking to the air from their night slumber to avoid our oncoming vessel.  Gannets began their serial search for food.  As the sight of land grew smaller, I started to see my first few target species:   dovekies and razorbills .  The calm water made it easier to spot the little dovekies on t...

     Earlier this month I went on a 12-hour pelagic trip out of Cape May, NJ.  During that trip with the Cape May Whale and Research Center we encountered a pair of endangered North Atlantic right whales.  The whales were interacting with each near the surface.  We spent nearly an hour watching the whales from a safe and required minimum distance.  Everyone on board enjoyed the encounter and many photographs were taken.   Two North Atlantic right whales off of Cape May, 12/14/2024.    © S. Weiss Their partial genealogies come to light. As I normally do when I have a whale encounter, I sent some of my photos to research organizations that track and maintain catalogs of whales.  I sent what I thought were the best photos I had which I felt would best be useful in identifying the individuals.  For right whales I know that scientists use the callosities found on and around their heads.  The callosities are unique to right whal...

     Last Saturday I was aboard the Cape May Whale and Research Center's 12-hour pelagic trip.  Early on we were seeing some of the usual birds, many or all of which one could see from land.  We had scoters, gulls, gannets and loons.  Then we had a great encounter with a pair of North Atlantic right whales. But a little bit of concern started to creep in to some on board that the whale sighting would be the highlight of a boring bird day.  Besides not seeing a great skua yet again, we did not come across any Atlantic puffins or northern fulmars.  But not long after the whale sighting, we began finding some other birds to make the trip both a good whale day and a good bird day. We did have two species of alcids, the first of the winter season for most of us.  We had several razorbills and several dovekies.  The tiny dovekies are a winter favorite for many of the birders on board.  Because we spent quite a bit of time enjoying the rig...