Hatteras Pelagic, Part 1

 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 had birds following the chum slick, circling overhead, cruising up and down alongside the boat or resting on the water.  At times, some of the birds were too close to get a focused photograph.  Daily we had shearwaters:  Cory's, great, sooty, Audubon's and Manx; Wilson's storm-petrels, red-necked phalaropes, artic terns and the area's signature birds, black-capped petrels.  On several days the crew quickly pointed out the longer-winged band-rumped storm-petrels and Leach's storm-petrels that zipped through the mass of Wilson's storm-petrels feeding in the chum slick.  On multiple days we had parasitic, long-tailed and pomarine jaegers following the boat.  The latter two with their respective long tail and twisted paddle tails in tact.  We were treated to lingering and cooperative south polar skuas, including a vocalizing pair circling just over our heads.

Trindade Petrel ©S.Weiss

Fea's Petrel ©S. Weiss

Then there were the trophy birds.  On the first day a Trindade petrel came to the boat, with soaring and gliding passes for several minutes.  Then we also had a beautiful white-tailed tropicbird drop in overhead and it glided around the boat for several minutes.  On our second day, a Fea's petrel dropped in to the chum slick and gave great passes around the boat also for several minutes.  On our way back, we came across a red-billed tropicbird sitting on the water, but it quickly lifted up and jetted away as we approached.
White-tailed Tropicbird ©S. Weiss

While the birds were the primary focus of the pelagic trips, the Gulf Stream provided other marine life for viewing.  Pods of bottlenose dolphin and a loggerhead turtle were seen on the first day.  The second day we saw pilot whales and a Portuguese man-o-war.  A hammerhead shark swam past the boat on our way out on the third day.  On the final day we had three Gervais' beaked whales nearby.

My next post will recap our return visit to Hatteras.


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