[nysbirds-l] Offshore Long Island, NY - Black-capped Petrel ++
On Friday, August 19th, John Shemilt, Keegan Corcoran and I participated in one of the final days of the Hampton Offshore Invitational fishing tournament. We focused our efforts within Ryan and McMaster Canyons ("The Claw"). We traveled south from the top of the canyon toward the bottom of the continental shelf break, just short of 1000 fathoms, where we encountered 82° water with no steep temperature break. The offshore weather was fantastic for traveling purposes; very little wind with a flat sea surface resembling pond-like conditions. Unfortunately the balmy, windless conditions made our two chum slicks relatively useless. The scent barely carried and most birds were roosting on the surface (expected for mid day). Despite being unable to draw much into our slicks we did encounter some deep water and canyon specialties while traveling about. The cumulative list is as follows: 1 Black-capped Petrel 2 White-faced Storm Petrel 7 Band-rumped Storm-Petrel 1 Leach's Storm-Petrel 285 Wilson's Storm-Petrel 1 Long-tailed Jaeger 3 jaeger sp. 2 Cory's Shearwater 10 Audubon's Shearwater 4 Red-necked Phalarope Marine mammal sightings from our 8/19 trip include hundreds of Pilot Whales, Risso's Dolphin, Bottlenose Dolphin, Common Dolphin, 5 SOWERBY'S BEAKED WHALE and a giant Manta Ray that cruised by our starboard side. Two sightings earlier in the week are also noteworthy. John and Keegan encountered White-faced Storm Petrel in the same general area; 1 on 8/15 and 2 individuals seen together on 8/18. There is a lot of life out there and hopefully this bodes well for a successful organized pelagic trip at the end of this month. Best, Derek Rogers Sayville -- 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/ --
[nysbirds-l] Offshore Long Island, NY - Black-capped Petrel ++
On Friday, August 19th, John Shemilt, Keegan Corcoran and I participated in one of the final days of the Hampton Offshore Invitational fishing tournament. We focused our efforts within Ryan and McMaster Canyons ("The Claw"). We traveled south from the top of the canyon toward the bottom of the continental shelf break, just short of 1000 fathoms, where we encountered 82° water with no steep temperature break. The offshore weather was fantastic for traveling purposes; very little wind with a flat sea surface resembling pond-like conditions. Unfortunately the balmy, windless conditions made our two chum slicks relatively useless. The scent barely carried and most birds were roosting on the surface (expected for mid day). Despite being unable to draw much into our slicks we did encounter some deep water and canyon specialties while traveling about. The cumulative list is as follows: 1 Black-capped Petrel 2 White-faced Storm Petrel 7 Band-rumped Storm-Petrel 1 Leach's Storm-Petrel 285 Wilson's Storm-Petrel 1 Long-tailed Jaeger 3 jaeger sp. 2 Cory's Shearwater 10 Audubon's Shearwater 4 Red-necked Phalarope Marine mammal sightings from our 8/19 trip include hundreds of Pilot Whales, Risso's Dolphin, Bottlenose Dolphin, Common Dolphin, 5 SOWERBY'S BEAKED WHALE and a giant Manta Ray that cruised by our starboard side. Two sightings earlier in the week are also noteworthy. John and Keegan encountered White-faced Storm Petrel in the same general area; 1 on 8/15 and 2 individuals seen together on 8/18. There is a lot of life out there and hopefully this bodes well for a successful organized pelagic trip at the end of this month. Best, Derek Rogers Sayville -- 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/ --