We were supposed to sail on Saturday, but the winds were horrendous
offshore. We did some juggling with the captain and the participatns,
and and we managed to get a big enough group to go out on Sunday
instead. The winds were light all day, seas were calm, and skies were
overcast, giving us excellent conditions for spotting alcids. We
didn't have any trouble with precipitation until the afternoon on our
way home. Seas were under 2' on the last few hours coming home,
making it feel like a lake.
In the morning, after we left the inlet, we started with our usual
cast of characters near shore. There were numbers of RED-THROATED
LOONS and lots of scoters though it was too dark to ID most of them.
As we headed farther offshore, we started picking up RAZORBILLS, and
got nice looks at several sitting birds. Farther out, we saw a few
COMMON MURRES, and managed to see birds in breeding plumage, winter
plumage, and one in molt.
By the time we were near the DE/MD pelagic boundary, we had found 4
COMMON MURRES, DOVEKIES started showing up in small numbers, some
NORTHERN FULMARS flew by to check out our chum slick, and people had
gotten great looks at LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. A small group of
KITTIWAKES flew in quickly, but buzzed off before most people could
get on them. A cooperative ATLANTIC PUFFIN was a treat as our last
good bird in the offshore DE waters. The DOVEKIE numbers began to
build, and we had seen over 300 by the time we reach MD.
Several MD state listers are doing a big year, making them more rabid
about which birds are seen in which state than usual (if that's
possible!). They were placated almost immediately after we crossed
the state line with DOVEKIES, NORTHERN FULMARS, 2 KITTIWAKES, and a
PUFFIN all in a span of less than 10 minutes.
I had been watching the water conditions for a month, and things
looked like they were set up nicely for a good day. One of the big
target birds of this trip is the DOVEKIE, and just two weeks prior we
had seen 9,000 out of New York. I was hoping for big numbers on this
trip too, and the little cuties didn't disappoint. By the time the
countin' was done, we had racked up a total of 4,223 DOVEKIES. The
amount of food in the water was amazing (plankton and small
invertebrates), and could be seen solidly on the fish finder from near
the surface down to 30'.
The day was rounded out with several more PUFFINS, a nice COMMON
DOLPHIN show, and a few brief looks at a HARBOR PORPOISE. The trip
back in had the Marylanders chomping for a COMMON MURRE they could
call their own. The rain started to pick back up, but the captain
kept the boat south of the line we stayed outside as we approached the
same distance from shore where we had seen the COMMON MURRES on the
way out. Magically, a nice breeding plumaged COMMON MURRE appeared
near the boat and just sat there very cooperatively. After circling
it a bit to get good photographs, we retired to the cabin for a very
comfortable ride in.
Here is our final tally, broken down by state. These are slightly
different than the ones announced on the boat as we picked up a few
more birds late in the trip:
SPECIES DE MD TOTAL
------------------------- ----- ----- -----
Surf Scoter 200 0 200
White-winged Scoter 4 2 6
Black Scoter 20 0 20
scoter sp. 2,000 0 2,000
Long-tailed Duck 1 0 1
Red-throated Loon 52 0 52
Common Loon 21 0 21
Horned Grebe 2 0 2
Northern Fulmar 9 22 31
Northern Gannet 29 79 108
Bonaparte's Gull 4 0 4
Herring Gull X X X
Lesser Black-backed Gull 2 1 3
Great Black-backed Gull X X X
Black-legged Kittiwake 5 2 7
Dovekie 338 3,885 4,223
Common Murre 4 1 5
murre sp. 2 0 2
Razorbill 26 24 50
large alcid sp. 25 10 35
Common Dolphin - 60
Harbor Porpoise - 1
Our next trip is March 18 out of Cape May, NJ. It will be going to
some of the same waters we just visited.
Our next trip out of Lewes is April 7. This is an under-explored time
of year, but we have a good shot at finding alcids (many in breeding
plumage), Sooty and possibly Manx Shearwater, Red Phalarope, Norther
Fulmar, and big numbers of Gannets. Our hope is to find something
rarer following all the Gannets and migrating fish like a Great Skua
or an albatross.
-PAG
Paul A. Guris
See Life Paulagics
P.O. Box 161
Green Lane, PA 18054
www.paulagics.com
215-234-6805
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