Whales, Puffins & More
It had been over four months since I was last out on the ocean, but I finally got back out there this past Sunday. I joined the Cape May Whale Watch & Research Center on its 12-hour pelagic trip. We left the dock by 6:30 in the to return by 6:30 in the evening. This was one of the few long pelagics that was completely in daylight. It was a little brisk with some wind at times, but I have been out in much colder and rougher conditions in the past. I was prepared for the weather and just happy to be out on the water again.
I had a couple pelagic species I wanted to see, and I actually saw almost all that I had hoped. As soon as we were about to leave the inlet to the open ocean, we spotted a pair of harbor seals feeding on fish that they caught underwater. On the way through the inlet, we saw a merlin perched on the jetty probably looking to score an early morning shorebird breakfast. As usual, great cormorants were resting atop the tower at the end of the jetty. Northern gannets were already using the winds to gracefully glide through the sky across the ocean surface. A mix of inshore sea ducks parted from the water ahead of our boat.
Alcids were expected and we did come across several razorbills during the trip, but overall, the numbers were not particularly high. We tallied 17 for the day. Most of them may still be to our south. There were many gannets around, over 300 total, mostly adults with their toasted marshmallow-colored heads. Early on during our venture offshore, I had picked up a small, black bird in the distance. My friend Jason, one of the trip leaders, picked up the bird with his binoculars and we kept eyes on it as it made its way toward the boat. It turned out to be a rusty blackbird. It’s not uncommon to see land birds on pelagic trips, especially around migration times. Often these wayward birds are exhausted and are looking for a place to stop and rest, such as a boat. I don’t think this one actually landed, but it passed by the ship's rails for a good look. I'm pretty sure that was a new pelagic species for all on board.
It was mid-morning when we had our first cetacean sighting of the day. A young birder on the boat said he had seen a dolphin's fin out on the water. Most of the vessel’s crew are interns studying cetaceans, so we spent a little time trying to find and identify the animal. It was elusive with just a few fin sightings with extended intervals of submerged time in between them. It didn’t take long for people like Jason and me to conclude that it was actually a minke whale rather than a dolphin. The singular animal, the longer submerged time and its elusiveness are very characteristic of a minke, the smallest of our baleen whales. They also do not have a conspicuous blow spout like the larger whales. We saw a few minkes during the day, none of which gave great photographic opportunities.
Not long after the minke sighting we finally spotted a few larger whales. A pair of humpback whales gave us more satisfying looks and kept the crew occupied for a while. A fin whale, a very much larger version of the minke, came through too, though it did not linger around like the humpbacks. Later in the day, in deeper water before we made our turn around, we came across a pod of common dolphins that had showed some interest in our vessel to the delight of most everybody. On our return near shore a pod of Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins completed our cetacean and pinniped sightings.
There were still some sea birds yet to see before we reached our turn around point about six hours into the trip. It was around midday when Jason (as usual) shouted out, “Sooty shearwater! Sooty shearwater!” This was our first large tubenose of the year, one of my trip targets. These slender, graceful fliers breed in the South Atlantic during our winter, then make a clockwise journey around the North Atlantic. Sooty shearwaters are usually seen in best numbers off our waters in May and June. This is not the earliest one we have seen in New Jersey. With the CMWW&RC, we saw one in March 2021 and one in February 2023. More research needs to be done to see what their true occurrence is in our waters.
We were creeping into deeper waters, getting further offshore. We were at or approaching the forty-mile mark where I personally feel is where we need to get to at a minimum for Atlantic puffins and northern fulmars. March is probably the best chance to see these birds in NJ waters. Not long after the shearwater, Jason again broke the lull with shouts of, “Puffin! Puffin!” This is what many on board, me included, were hoping to see. This individual was a nice colorful adult sitting on the water for everyone to see and for most to photograph. We managed to find five of them in a small area we passed through on our way out and back.
Our last two highlight birds came shortly before our turn around. The sightings were brief and nearly simultaneous. Jason, yet again, excitedly yelled, “Fulmar! Fulmar!” I followed with my own shout of, “Dovekie! Dovekie!”
Both birds were not easy to get on, and most people did not see one, the other or even both. Jason’s northern fulmar was out a distance from the boat, flying from the 11 o’clock position towards the one o’clock position and away. My dovekie was sitting on the water at the one o’clock position right in front of the boat. The tiny bird was not easy to pick up in the swells, and the moving boat quickly passed it. The captain, inside the wheelhouse, could not hear nor react quick enough to stay with either bird. I was lucky enough to pick up the fulmar arcing as it flew near the horizon, but not fortunate enough to photograph either bird. Needless to say, they were the only ones of each for the trip. That was my third dovekie of the year and only my second fulmar for New Jersey.
This was a good first pelagic trip of the year. Hopefully there will be many more to come.
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