1,500 Consecutive Checklist Days and a New Life Bird

    This past Sunday my friend, Captain John, invited me back on his boat for a day of tuna fishing.  While tuna was his target, and I love deep sea fishing as well, I really was hoping to finally find some pelagic birds on the trip.  This day would be the 1,500th consecutive day submitting an eBird checklist and I wanted it to be memorable.  The only reason I am aware of this streak is because my eBird homepage reminds me every day with that stat prominently displayed on the top banner.  Submitting at least one checklist a day sounds easy, since I can list any bird that comes to my backyard feeders.  But I can see how life can get in the way for many people, COVID being one reason.  Lucky for me, I have been able to report at least one bird each day for over four years.

The previous two tuna trips provided little in pelagic bird diversity, with only great shearwaters, Wilson’s storm-petrels and a few Cory’s shearwaters to report.  Being the only birder on the boat makes it a little harder to spot birds too.  The captain is looking for fish, and the only birds he maneuvers towards are those feeding over a school of fish.  Quite different than a pelagic birding trip where almost all of the passengers and crew are scanning the water and sky for birds and the captain obliges for a bird spotted in the distance.  This day, my luck changed a little for the better.  We left at midnight and arrived at the fishing grounds before sunrise.  As the sky did begin to lighten, I saw three gull-like birds flying high overhead.  They drifted away and I tried to photograph them, but the light was poor and focusing on an object in the sky is difficult even in good light.  The birds drifted back briefly, and I got a brief glimpse of them in my binoculars.  They were jaegers, and their pointed central tail feathers were evident in the poor photos I did manage to get.  About 20 or so minutes later I thought I had a phalarope fly by the boat, but it turned out to be a ruddy turnstone when I examined the picture that I took of it.  A somewhat surprising bird to see about 90 miles from shore.

Later in the morning I spotted a bird sitting on the water ahead of the boat.  Thinking it was a shearwater, I started taking photos.  It lifted off soon after I began shooting.  It flew off high and far, which clued me that it wasn’t a shearwater, but something like a jaeger, or skua.  I got a decent photo of it lifting off the water and I could see the white flashes in its wings.  Identifying subadult jaegers, or adults not in fresh breeding attire, can be a little tricky.  I wasn’t sure if it was a parasitic or pomarine.  Parasitic was the consensus after showing the photo to a friend who is much better with jaegers.

   Parasitic jaeger sitting on water, taking flight as boat nears.   © S. Weiss

Wilson’s storm-petrels were reliable, but in much less numbers from what I saw a few weeks earlier.  I saw only one great shearwater and one Cory’s shearwater during the day.  I did see a handful of other shearwaters in the distance during the day but could not put positive identification on them.  While the individual shearwater numbers in general were down from my last trip, the diversity was a little better.  I had decent looks of an Audubon’s shearwater later in the morning.  It was actually the shearwater that passed closest to the boat.  I did see another small shearwater flying away from the boat later in the afternoon, and it appeared more like a Manx shearwater with longer, pointer wings and a shorter tail.

Audubon's shearwater.  © S. Weiss

Smallest shearwater expected to be seen on western Atlantic Ocean.  Its breeding grounds are in the Caribbean.  The bird's broad wings are apparent in photo.  Barolo shearwater is smaller but is very rare as it nests on the eastern side of the Atlantic. 

Likely a Manx shearwater.  © S. Weiss

Manx shearwater is slightly larger than Audubon's.  Other than size, the Manx can be distinguished by white undertail coverts, narrower wings and shorter tail.  This bird's wings appear narrow in photos.

My bird of the day, however, was my first White-faced storm-petrel.  All of the summer fishing and boat trips that I have taken over the last several years were in anticipation of finding this rarity for the western Atlantic Ocean.  White-faced storm-petrels breed off the western coast of Africa, and with luck, a few are spotted on our side of the Atlantic in late summer.  We were trolling for tuna at the time and the bite was slow, so I was scanning the water for birds and any marine life.  I spotted a few distant storm-petrels and one stood out from the other in both its appearance and behavior.  We were moving away from the birds so I fired off some photos until I could not make the birds out anymore.  The photos were distant and grainy, but a couple were identifiable.  They were not National Geographic quality, but they proved what I saw.  My elation was tempered by the fact that I had nobody else to share my excitement.  The other guys on the boat thought the whales or dolphins that popped up were neat, but not the case with birds.

White-faced storm-petrel, a rare summer pelagic bird for New Jersey.  © S. Weiss

The white-faced storm-petrel is nicknamed the kangaroo bird because of its distinctive foraging style appearing as if the bird is hopping along the water surface.  Its white undersides and white face contrast with the other mostly black storm-petrels in our local waters.

Throughout the day there was other marine life for the other guys to appreciate.  We had one whale surface during the day, and from its long, straight back it appeared to be a fin whale.  A couple pods of dolphin swam alongside the boat during one phase of our trolling.  The tall, flopping dorsal fin of an ocean sunfish, or mola mola was spotted too.  

When the day came to a close, we managed only one small yellowfin tuna.  Fortunately, Captain John took us to a special spot where we loaded our fish box with some nice tilefish to take home.

Sargassum crab swimming back to refuge provided by floating Sargassum seaweed.  © S. Weiss

 

Bottle-nosed dolphin swimming alongside our boat.  © S. Weiss