Birds and Other Nature Sightings

     My fishing captain friend invited me out for his second day of a sea bass tournament on Sunday.  It was my first opportunity of the year to get out on the water, catch some fish and see some sea birds.  It turned out to be a good day for fishing for all of us on board and a good first day of sea birding for me.  We left the dock at five a.m. and headed out of Barnegat Inlet.  We had fog all day, ranging from thick to about a mile of visibility, but the seas were calm.  We made it to the first fishing spot around six a.m. and the fishing started out with a bang.  It would slow as the day progressed and as we hopped around to other spots.  We happily had our limit of sea bass and added some ling , or red hake , to our bounty.   Birds were scarce for most of the day, maybe because of the fog conditions, or maybe because we were not chumming.  Early on though we had some Wilson’s storm-petrels flying around, making their skip-like dips on the water surface picking at food.  These are

     The past couple of years I have been fortunate to see North Atlantic right whales on pelagic bird and mammal trips out of Cape May with the Cape May Whale and Research Center .  North Atlantic right whales are one of the world’s most endangered species with a population of less than 350 individuals, and  only about 20 percent of those are calving females.  I have been lucky enough to see right whales on three occasions, including a mother and calf.  The other day I submitted photos from two of those sightings to the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog at  http://rwcatalog.neaq.org .  The next day I received an email from the staff thanking me for my photos and shared information on my whales. The catalog is maintained by the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life on behalf of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium .  I submitted photos of a female whale and her calf spotted off of Cape May on March, 2021 and an individual whale seen off of Cape May on 2022.  The mother whale is