Cape May Pelagic - 6/21/20

     Last Friday night I joined the Cape May Whale Watch & Research Center on its first 24-hour pelagic trip of the year.  In the past, the June trips have been quite successful with a nice diversity of seabirds and marine life.  Like all pelagic trips though, you never know what you’ll see until you’re actually out there.

We left the dock at 9 p.m. and headed out towards the area of the Wilmington Canyon.  We arrived there in the predawn light.  The sound of the American Star’s engine slowing down awakened all the sleeping passengers.  The boat came alive as everyone began rolling up sleeping bags; many multitasking while also brushing teeth, and some waiting for the coffee to finish brewing in the galley.  The crew, mostly consisting of college interns, began ladling out chum to start attracting the sea birds.  It wasn’t long before some came into view.  Wilson’s storm-petrels and a few shearwaters kicked off the day.  The early shearwaters were almost all great shearwaters with one sooty shearwater.  We spent the early morning drifting with a chum slick observing and counting the birds in the area.

Great shearwater.  © S. Weiss

After a little while, the number of bird species didn’t really change so we started to move around the area looking for other sea life activity.  The lack of a more diverse variety of sea birds was a sign of what the birding tally would become for the day.  The morning hours normally produce band-rumped and Leach’s storm-petrels, but none were spotted, not even by the expert spotters on board.  No petrels, jaegers nor skuas were to be had on the day.  We did add Cory’s type shearwaters to the trip list.

Cory's type shearwaters.  © S. Weiss

In prior years, this was a group of Cory's shearwaters.  The challenge was picking out the Scopoli's subspecies.  This year it was harder to find just plain Cory's shearwaters.

Last year, the governing organizations that determine the taxonomy of our bird species finally made the decision to elevate Scopoli’s shearwater to a full species on its own.  It had been a subspecies of Cory’s shearwater.  So, with every Cory’s looking shearwater that flew past, it became a task to declare if it was a Cory’s (Calonectris borealisp) or a Scopoli’s (Calonectris diomedea).  Probably the most capable way to separate the two species is by the underside of the birds’ primaries, which requires the birds to be in flight.  Calonectris borealis has all dark outer primary tips, and Calonectris diomedea has white extending into those tips.  Before this year, the novelty was picking out a Scopoli’s among the Cory’s.  This year it was actually trying to find a Cory’s among the Scopoli’s.  Those that couldn’t be identified correctly were listed as slash birds:  Cory’s/Scopoli’s shearwater.

Left, Scopoli's shearwater.  Right, Cory's shearwater.  © S. Weiss

Left, Scopoli's shearwater primaries.  Right, Cory's shearwater primaries.  © S. Weiss

Notice the difference between the primary tips of the two Calonectris shearwaters.  The Scopoli's (Calonectris diomedea) has white fingers into the tips.  The Cory's (Calonectris borealis) has all black tips.

While the birding aspect of the trip was not as fruitful as some of us had hoped, the other marine life made up for it.  The cetaceans stole the day and other fish species added to the show.  For the day we had at least two whale species:  fin whales and minke whales.  We had dolphins, or toothed whales, for the day:  pilot whales; striped, common, Risso’s and offshore bottlenose dolphins; and a Cuvier’s beaked whale.  Beaked whales are not easy to come across as they are a deep-diving species and among the lesser studied species of cetaceans.  Usually any that I have seen, as with most observers, is briefly at the surface before the animal dives again.  This one individual however, made several surfaces before finally disappearing into the depths.

Left, pilot whale.  Right, Risso's dolphin.  © S. Weiss

Pilot whales and Risso's dolphins belong to the same taxonomic family, Oceanic Dolphins. Both of these dolphin species have large bulbous heads, called melons, and very short beaks.

Left, Cuvier's beaked whale.  Right, fin whale.  © S. Weiss

Cuvier’s beaked whales are deep diving animals normally found offshore.  They hold the records for longest duration dive (over 3-1/2 hours) and deepest dive (nearly 10, 000 feet) by a mammal.  This massive fin whale clearly shows its lower right jaw.  Only the lower right jaw is white, and this is a distinct feature only of fin whales.

Striped dolphin.  © S. Weiss

Striped dolphins are beautiful, deep-water animals.  They are very acrobatic and entertaining.  They are named for the black stripe running along the side from the beak to tail.

Along our trip during the day, we encounter several other fish species swimming at the surface:  a Chilean devil ray, an ocean sunfish, several loggerhead sea turtles, several hammerhead sharks and several swordfish.  The swordfish were a pelagic first for me and most everybody on the trip.  Of all my pelagic trips, in several different states, plus all my deep-sea fishing trips since I was a child, this was my first sighting of swordfish.

Loggerhead sea turtle.  © S. Weiss

Left, hammerhead shark.  Right, swordfish.  © S. Weiss

This hammerhead appears to be a scalloped hammerhead, a common species off our coast.  The swordfish has a tall pointed dorsal fin that does not extend down is back towards the tail compared to other billfish like marlins and sailfish.

Ocean sunfish.  © S. Weiss

The ocean sunfish, or common mola, is often referred to by its scientific name, Mola mola.  They are commonly encountered on pelagic trips.

The next overnight trip is in August, and I can’t wait to see what we’ll find then out on the ocean.