Birds and Other Nature Sightings

     On Wednesday I wrapped up my day of birding at Island Beach State Park with a drive along the beach.  It was a nice day, and I was picking up most of the usual fall birds.  While I was scanning the ocean for a possible jaeger (or two), I saw a blow spout not too far off of the beach.  Whale sightings from the beach are not rare, especially this time of the year.  Large schools of menhaden (bunker as we call them here), peanut bunker and other bait fish are plentiful now and right along the beach.  Eventually striped bass and bluefish will find this bait, but for now bottlenose dolphin and humpback whales are following the bait. Humpback whale " waving " with one of its pectoral fins.   © S. Weiss I enjoy watching whales any time, whether it be from the beach or a boat.  They are mammals like us.  They breathe air, give live birth to their young and nurse them with mother’s milk.  And, I take the word of the biologists...

      Finally, after five days the rain stopped and the ocean was kind enough to allow boats to return to work.  The main purpose of our Washington trip was to get out on this pelagic venture and now it was time.  We were the first participants to arrive at the dock, or float as the western locals called it.  We were sailing on the Monte Carlo from Float 10.  The Monte Carlo is about a 50-foot vessel, smaller than the pelagic boats we are used to riding on the East coast.  There were only 18 participants for this ride, so comfort wasn’t a problem.  After a brief introduction and orientation, we set off at about 6:30 a.m.  The seas seemed much better than the forecasted five to six foot swells. The sun rising behind Mt. Rainier, WA.   © S. Weiss Heading out of the inlet Friday morning, the silhouette of Mt. Rainer about 160 or so miles away is impressive. As we made our way out of the inlet onto the Pacific, we slowly began pi...

     On Monday morning we woke up in Westport with a wonderful view of the Pacific Ocean outside our apartment window.  The ocean however was angry, quite the opposite of its name.  It was understandable why the pelagic was postponed.  Westport is a small fishing community, much like Hatteras, NC where we also travel to for pelagic trips.  The local marina was filled with fishing boats, all idle waiting for the sea to settle down.  The boats should have been out catching salmon, cod, shrimp, dungeness crabs and the like.  We did not see the first boat head out of the harbor until Thursday. After a few hours of morning birding from the nearby jetty along the southern side of the inlet, we had to decide about extending our stay to the end of the week.  The captain of the pelagic boat said that conditions looked good for Friday, and the three of us would give him enough participants to sail.  So after a few searches on the internet and...

      Last week I travelled with my friends Jason and Chris to Washington state.  We had planned the trip back in March with the main purpose being a pelagic day trip out of Westport in Grays Harbor County.  We had originally planned to be there from Sunday to Thursday.  This would give us a couple days to bird the area before getting out on the boat on Wednesday.  Neither Jason nor I had been out to the Pacific Northwest before, so we looked forward to seeing new things: birds, whales and the like.  The problem with booking a trip six months in advance is that you cannot predict the weather.  When your trip is centered around nature and being outdoors, weather is a big deal. On Saturday, the day before we were set to leave, New Jersey was getting battered by the outer bands of tropical storm Ophelia.  Likewise, the coast of Washington was dealing with a bomb cyclone .  That means they were getting hit with a lot of wind and rain to...

     This past Labor Day weekend I went on a tuna fishing trip with my friend who captain’s the boat.  In addition to catching a yellowfin tuna and several mahi mahi, we were entertained throughout the day with many humpback whales and a few fin whales surfacing all around the fishing grounds.  We were near the Hudson Canyon and the whales were not shy with sharing their feeding spot with the fishing vessels.   The whales were very active, surfacing very close to our boat and others.  On deep dives, they raised their tails well clear of the water.  I took many photographs and, as I have been doing for over a year now, submitted some to Happywhale.com .   Happywhale uses a database of photos, particularly humpback whale tails (flukes), to identify individual whales.  Combined with encounters submitted by other observers, you can track an identified whale.  Each humpback’s fluke is unique, like a human fingerprint.   Happywhale ...