In my post regarding the pelagic, I neglected to share the link to the eBird trip report, which will contain all the eBird lists from the trip, and contain any media that the participants embed:
https://ebird.org/tripreport/59114 All the best -Doug On Wed, May 25, 2022 at 8:09 AM Doug Gochfeld <fresha2...@gmail.com> wrote: > The American Princess launched its first overnight dedicated birding > pelagic trip on Monday night, departing from Brooklyn's Sheepshead Bay. > Captain Frank did a great job managing the disorganized seas, and the other > guides/bird spotters in addition to myself were Paul Guris and Sean Sime. > > Water temperatures over the shelf were steady in the 53 degree Fahrenheit > range, and this uniformity continued into deep waters. We didn't see a rise > in temperature until the water depth was around 7,000 feet. The furthest > point we reached was in deep water south of the mouth of the Hudson Canyon, > around 115 statute miles off of Barnegat, New Jersey, and over 120 statute > miles from Fire Island, and we experienced a 6.5 degree F temperature > increase within a span of around 5 miles. This was the outer range of where > we could get to with the boat in the current conditions, and so we set up a > morning chum slick here. After three hours in this vicinity, we headed > north towards the Hudson Canyon and worked along the western wall of the > canyon before heading for home. > > Highlight bird & mammal species: > *BLACK-CAPPED PETREL* - 5 (including one in shallower waters near the > Hudson Canyon) > *DOVEKIE* - 1 (just south of the Hudson Canyon's west wall) > *Atlantic Puffin* - 2 (just south of the Hudson Canyon's west wall) > *Leach's Storm-Petrel* - 2 (one in the slick, and one in the early > morning gloaming) > *Band-rumped Storm-Petrel *- 1 briefly passed through the slick > *Red Phalarope* - 5 (deep water and near-canyon) > *Red-necked Phalarope* - 6 (deep water and near-canyon) > *Manx Shearwater *- 4 (all in deep water, including two exceptionally > cooperative birds in the slick) > *STRIPED DOLPHIN* - One big pod moving by us very fast in tight > formation. These are highly pelagic dolphins, and are essentially only seen > on trips that get into truly deep water, beyond the undersea canyons. > Risso's Dolphin - One small pod near the Hudson Canyon > Humpback Whale - > Fin Whale - a couple around a cetacean agregation west of the tip of the > Hudson Canyon > Humpback Whale - at least one around a cetacean aggregation west of the > tip of the Hudson Canyon > > Numbers were a bit surprisingly low of the three generally more common > shearwaters, with only 27 Sooty Shearwater, 1 Great Shearwater, and 3 > Cory's Shearwaters. We also had several encounters with what eventually > numbered several hundred Common Dolphins, and came across perhaps as many > as 10 Mola (Ocean Sunfish). > > We did not see any passerines at sea, and a group of 7 northbound Canada > Geese 75 miles east of Barnegat and 70+ miles south of Westhampton, and one > Double-crested Cormorant flying by at our farthest point (~115 miles from > closest point of land) were the most seemingly out of place birds. > > One of the most interesting events of the day for me was an obvious > large-scale movement of Common Terns that went on for around 40 miles of > our trip. We had several hundred sterna, mostly or all Common (everything > close enough to be identified, even just by photo, was a Common) Terns, > heading NE between the tip of the Hudson Canyon and about halfway back, and > we were out of the flow once we were about 40 miles away from shore. > > Good Pelagic Birding! > -Douglas Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY. > -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
