Birds and Other Nature Sightings

    This past weekend, Jason, Chris and I returned for our second pelagic birding trip with Seabirding pelagics in Hatteras, NC.  We booked ourselves on the first four days of their 12-day spring blitz, May 20 through May 23.  Last year, my first experience there, we set the bar high with phenomenal birding.  This year, well, our hopes were high, but tempered.  The Stormy Petrel II sailed all four days, and it was a slog getting out to the Gulf Stream and back.  The only dry side of the boat at times was inside the cabin.  For most of the four days we were stuck in a west or southwesterly wind pattern, which is not ideal for offshore birding.  While I personally did not see any new life birds, the trip did provide us with some good views of pelagic birds that one can't see from shore. The highlight birds of the four days were Leach's, band-rumped and Wilson's storm-petrels; one arctic tern; Cory's, Audubon's and two single sooty shearwaters; a few red-necked phalaro

 Welcome to Birds & Other Nature Sightings.  This past weekend I returned to Hatteras, North Carolina with a couple of friends for four days of pelagic birding on the Gulf Stream.  Before I share my sightings from this trip, I'll recap last year's trip.  Last year my friends, Jason and Chris, and I spent four days from May 23 to May 26 with Seabirding pelagics aboard the Stormy Petrel II.  Jason and Chris had done several trips on the Stormy Petrel II in the past, but this was my first experience.  The crew of the Stormy Petrel II, captain Brian and Kate, his second in command, are renowned for these pelagic trips and are experts at identifying the birds and marine life.  During their spring blitz, the boat heads out each morning to the Gulf Stream and spends the day at a slow troll with a chum block in tow.  You never know what you might see on a daily basis. For a first timer, I had a phenomenal trip.  I saw 11 new life birds, and the sightings were not just fleeting.  We