Birds and Other Nature Sightings

     On Sunday, I left home at 4:30 in the morning for Cape May to join a 12-hour pelagic trip aboard the American Star.  It was cold, about 35 degrees, but for mid-February in New Jersey that is not bad.  I go out on pelagics whenever I can because there are birds and other sea life out on the ocean that you just cannot find on land.  My previous pelagic trip last month was windy, colder with snow flurries.  Weather conditions this time were better, and my expectations were a little high.  This winter has been exceptional for alcids along the northeastern Atlantic, from New York to North Carolina.  I knew leaving home that this was an opportunity to see maybe five different alcids:   razorbill , dovekie , Atlantic puffin , common and thick-billed murres .  For the day, we scored four of the five; only missing a thick-billed murre.  The tally for the day was 282 razorbills, 55 dovekies, one puffin and one common murre, plus s...

     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.  Bein...