BPI 2002 Winter Pelagic Trip Results

While the past trips lists give a good idea of what to expect on a given date, one must remember that these are snapshots of several days taken over a span of many years. They do not tell the whole story. Some years may better for certain species and the Gulf Stream may have been atypically close or far offshore on certain days. These trips do not take into account our changes in tactics over the years either. I feel that we have been more successful in recent years with bringing the rare gadfly petrels close to the boat with chum. This is most evident when looking at our spring trip lists, but also consider how few trips we have run in June or July compared to May. Those months could be just as productive for Fea's and Bermuda Petrels, but we don't yet have the data to determine that. Just because we have not run many trips in June or July is not because it is a bad time for the birds, it has merely been a harder timer to recruit the birders. Now that we have our own boat, our per trip overhead is low enough for us to run more trips than ever, and thus explore the waters in early May, late June, or early July for example.

What the trip lists do show us though is that you really increase your odds by going on two or more trips. It is quite possible to go out and see five Band-rumped Storm-Petrels on one day and 50 the next, and how many weekends do we see Herald or Fea's Petrels on consecutive days?

Our trips in spring 2003 were about as good as they get. We had originally planned to run more trips from Hatteras, but a breakdown there on May 26 caused us to lose three of our trips. Fortunately we were able to re-book two of those on the Country Girl, and we had some incredible luck. In addition to the Pterodroma "Grand Slam" off Oregon Inlet on May 24, we had an unprecedented number of Red-billed Tropicbirds in May and June. Fea's Petrel was well seen on a number of trips, and the bird of the year- an apparent European Storm-Petrel- Hydrobates pelagicus- was photographed on our impromptu May 27 trip, though I did not discover it until going through my pictures weeks later. If the winds are right, late May tend to be the peak time for diversity on these trips. 2003 was no exception- 20 species of pelagic seabirds were seen between two boats on May 24 alone! -BP

Friday, May 23, 2003

Trinidade (Herald) Petrel	2
Black-capped Petrel	23
Cory’s Shearwater	71
Greater Shearwater	5
Sooty Shearwater	26
Audubon’s Shearwater	31
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	414
Leach’s Storm-Petrel	19
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel	10
South Polar Skua	1
Pomarine Jaeger	6
Parasitic Jaeger	1
Bridled Tern	1

Other Species Seen:
Common Loon 1
Northern Gannet 595
Common Tern 11
Sanderling 8
Red Knot 1

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin 15-20
Bottlenose Dolphin 19
Dolpin sp. 2

Saturday May 24, 2003

Black-capped Petrel	46
Cory’s Shearwater	156
Greater Shearwater	14
Sooty Shearwater	6
Manx Shearwater	2
Audubon’s Shearwater	37
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	350
Leach’s Storm-Petrel	5
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel	5
White-tailed Tropicbird	1
Red-necked Phalarope	24
Pomarine Jaeger	8
Parasitic Jaeger	1
Arctic Tern	12
Bridled Tern	2
Sooty Tern	56+

Other Species Seen:
Common Loon 3
Northern Gannet 10
Laughing Gull 1
Roseate Tern 1
Common Tern ~25
Least Tern ~15
Black Tern 1
Black-bellied Plover 1
Ruddy Turnstone 14
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
peep sp. 6
Northern Waterthrush 1

Mesoplodon sp. 2
Atlantic Spotted Dolphin 6
Bottlenose Dolphin 7
Dolphin sp. 4
Loggerhead Turtle 1
Atlantic Long-billed Spearfish 1 (caught & released )
Scalloped Hammerhead

Saturday May 24, 2003

Trinidade (Herald) Petrel	1
Fea’s Petrel	1
Bermuda Petrel	1
Black-capped Petrel	40
Cory’s Shearwater	42
Greater Shearwater	41
Sooty Shearwater	6
Audubon’s Shearwater	25
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	487
Leach’s Storm-Petrel	4
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel	3
Red-billed Tropicbird	1
Red-necked Phalarope	30
Pomarine Jaeger	3
Bridled Tern	83

Other Species Seen:
Common Loon 1
Northern Gannet 49
Forster’s Tern 1
Common Tern 10
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1

Sunday May 25, 2003

Black-capped Petrel	52
Cory’s Shearwater	132
Greater Shearwater	15
Sooty Shearwater	5
Manx Shearwater	2
Audubon’s Shearwater	42
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	353
Leach’s Storm-Petrel	1
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel	3
Red-billed Tropicbird	1
Red-necked Phalarope	3
Pomarine Jaeger	4
Long-tailed Jaeger	1
Arctic Tern	7
Bridled Tern	1
Sooty Tern	34

Other Species Seen:
Common Loon seen
Northern Gannet seen
Laughing Gull 1
Roseate Tern 1
Common Tern seen
Forster’s Tern 1
peep sp. 12
Barn Swallow 2
Blackburnian Warbler 1

Clymene Dolphin 150-200
Bottlenose Dolphin 7+
Loggerhead Turtle 1
Atlantic Manta 1
Mahi Mahi 2 caught 1 seen

Sunday May 25, 2003

Black-capped Petrel	44
Cory’s Shearwater	65
Greater Shearwater	23
Sooty Shearwater	8
Audubon’s Shearwater	26
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	328
Leach’s Storm-Petrel	5
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel	3
Red-necked Phalarope	20
Pomarine Jaeger	4
Bridled Tern	2
Sooty Tern	3
Dark Tern sp.	8

Other Species Seen:
Common Loon 1
Northern Gannet 8
Laughing Gull 1
Royal Tern 4
Sandwich Tern 2
Roseate Tern 2
Common Tern 25
Dowitcher 1
Barn Swallow 1

Monday May 26, 2003

Fea’s Petrel	1
Black-capped Petrel	32
Cory’s Shearwater	48
Greater Shearwater	15
Audubon’s Shearwater	33
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	315
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel	3
Oceanodroma sp.	2
Red-necked Phalarope	5
Pomarine Jaeger	4
jaeger sp.	2
Arctic Tern	2
Bridled Tern	7
Sooty Tern	18

Other Species Seen:
Common Loon 3
Northern Gannet 39
Laughing Gull 1
Royal Tern 4
Sandwich Tern 3
Common Tern 9
Least Tern 2
Red Knot 8
Great Blue Heron 3
Barn Swallow 1

Tuesday May 27, 2003

Fea’s Petrel	2
Black-capped Petrel	63+
Cory’s Shearwater	60+
Greater Shearwater	27
Sooty Shearwater	8+
Audubon’s Shearwater	35
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	549
Leach’s Storm-Petrel	12
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel	19
European Storm-Petrel?	1
Red-billed Tropicbird	2
Arctic Tern	2
Sooty Tern	3

Other Species Seen:
Common Loon 3
Northern Gannet seen
Gannet/booby sp. 1
Common Tern seen

Friday May 30, 2003

Fea’s Petrel	1
Black-capped Petrel	58
Cory’s Shearwater	112
Greater Shearwater	8
Sooty Shearwater	1
Audubon’s Shearwater	26
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	137
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel	4
Long-tailed Jaeger	1
Arctic Tern	1-2
Bridled Tern	6
Sooty Tern	1

Other Species Seen:
Northern Gannet 4+
Laughing Gull 2
Common Tern 5
Least Tern 9
Sanderling 2

Saturday May 31, 2003

Trinidade (Herald) Petrel	2
Black-capped Petrel	52
Cory’s Shearwater	54
Greater Shearwater	1
Sooty Shearwater	1
Audubon’s Shearwater	6-7
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	137
Leach’s Storm-Petrel	3
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel	8
Bridled Tern	5

Other Species Seen:
Laughing Gull 1
Common Tern 2
Red Knot 1
Sanderling 8
shorebird sp. 1

Saturday June 7, 2003

Herald Petrel (dark morph)	1
Black-capped Petrel	54
Cory's Shearwater	87
Greater Shearwater	15
Manx Shearwater	1
Audubon’s Shearwater	34
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	253
Leach’s Storm-Petrel	10+
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel	12+
Red-billed Tropicbird	1ad.
Pomarine Jaeger	1
jaeger sp.	1
Bridled Tern	2

Sunday June 8, 2003

Black-capped Petrel	26
Cory’s Shearwater	65
Greater Shearwater	20
Audubon’s Shearwater	63
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel	204
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel	0
Leach’s Storm-Petrel	2
Pomarine Jaeger	1