See Life Paulagics ran a 16-hour trip out to the deep waters in the Hudson Canyon on Sunday, September 16. The trip left at 12:30 AM and we had a very comfortable overnight ride on the 100' long Starstream VIII. While no rarities were found, birders had excellent looks at good numbers of GREAT SHEARWATERS, drive right up looks at CORY'S SHEARWATERS and RED-NECKED PHALAROPES, and POMARINE JAEGERS that flew right over the boat. Several landbirds were seen on the trip, including a NORTHERN FLICKER and a female type PURPLE FINCH. At least one warbler was seen but went unidentified.
Mammals were interesting as well. Two young HUMPBACKED WHALES were seen, and one breached for the crowd repeatedly. What a show! For me, it was the highlight of the trip. I've never seen a whale breach that many times or that close to the boat. COMMON DOLPHINS rode the wake early in the morning and a small pod of ATLANTIC BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN were seen working behind a trawler. We also had a nice showing of bats. We found 1 RED BAT and 4 unidentified to species. I've actually seen bats offshore before, but never that many. Here's a tally of the birds seen offshore: Common Loon 1 Cory's Shearwater 5 Great Shearwater 350+ Audubon's Shearwater 4 (all pre-dawn) Wilson's Storm-Petrel 175 Leach's Storm-Petrel 1 Red-necked Phalarope 3 Herring Gull 33 Lesser Black-backed Gull 3 Great Black-backed Gull 2 gull sp. 2 Black Tern 1 Common Tern 1 Pomarine Jaeger 3 Parasitic Jaeger 1 jaeger sp. 1 Northern Flicker 1 Purple Finch 1 passerine sp. 1 Common Dolphin 40 Bottlenose Dolphin 10 Humpbacked Whale 2 Red Bat 1 bat sp. 4 We'll be working on our future trip dates soon, but expect a 12 hour offshore trip in Jan-Feb to look for alcids like Dovekie, Puffin, Common Murre, and Razorbill. These offshore trips can also produce Northern Fulmar and Red Phalarope, as well as Kittiwakes, a great Gannet show, and uncommon gulls like Iceland and Glaucous. Hopefully we'll see you aboard. -PAG -- Paul A. Guris See Life Paulagics PO Box 161 Green Lane, PA 18054 215-234-6805 www.paulagics.com paulagics....@gmail.com i...@paulagics.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
