Pre-Blitz (09-15May2022)

Every spring Patteson Pelagics runs a series of trips to the gulf stream called the Blitz, I guess because it is a non-stop barrage of runs back and forth with no off days.  Its frequently booked up quickly and I was jonesing to get out on the water so I signed up for the week before the blitz.  First some pics from around town at home.

A kind of weird looking Yellow-crowned Night-heron has been hanging around Airlie Gardens but in the marsh and not on the pond.

Spotted Sandpipers have been thick around the pond.

Some of my Brunswick County friends had reports of a pair of Sandhill Cranes exhibiting nesting behavior at Boiling Spring Lakes so I hooked up with Harry and checked it out.

Harry says the pair has been trading off on egg sitting duty for about 2 hours a pop so usually you only see one while the other is hidden in the tall grass. So we posted up and watched this one.  Harry said it had switched about an hour before so we waited an hour to test the 2 hour theory.

Sure enough, the two traded places after an hour.

She/he was restless after sitting on eggs for 2 hours and chased some mallards out of the area.

Harry has since confirmed a Colt has fledged and is following the parents around the dried out lake bed.  This might be the first documented successful pair in North Carolina.  Interestingly the red hue on the feathers is slathered on by the bird from oxides in the mud presumably for camouflaging. 

A Wood Duck at Wade Park.

On my way to the OBX for the pelagic this rainbow dove the Alligator River was a good omen (can omens be good?).  I camped at the Cape Point campground and it was a beautiful night with all the natural sounds that comes with that place - Tree Frogs, Nighthawks and Chucks.  Luckily it didn't come with any of the bad sounds like generators which some "campers" like to fire up sometimes.

The pelagic started out pretty good with Black-capped Petrels and lots of Storm-petrels including Band-rumped and Leach's among the Wilson's but I didn't start photographing until Kate and I noticed a smaller Storm-peltrel almost simultaneously behind the boat in the wake.  We both screamed "European Storm-petrel" and got everyone on it. Getting a photo was tough because the birds were all mixed up and moving around frenetically in the wind and waves.

Record shot of a European Stormie - note the absence of strong carpal bars.

White underwings are what got us on it in the first place but also the more rapid flight style.  It was gone pretty quick and I don't think anyone got any great pics.

The Leach's SPs were more accommodating.

Pomarine Jaegers tend to the the ones that follow the boat the most.  The Long-tailed and Parasitics mostly fly by quickly.

Leach's

Cory's Shearwater 

Pom

Black-capped Petrel

Band-rumped Storm-petrel

Pom

Arctic Tern

I was loading my pics to the communal eBird list and saw that someone else had the identical picture! And I thought I was special for getting this shot.

A good shot of the deeply forked tail of a Leach's Stormie.

Fea's Petrel in the rain

Fea's ventral view with the trademark dark underwings.

Red Phalarope

Pom Jaeger - You could eat a bowl of cereal with those spoons.

Audubon's Shearwater

Atlantic Spotted Dolphins

It was a great trip but the elusive Bermuda Petrel is still my nemesis pelagic bird.

Back on terra firma, Matt J had a Red-necked Phalarope in Buxton basically right off the main road.

Red-necked Phalarope

Lesser Yellowlegs

I was exhausted and didn't feel like driving home the same night so I camped out and did a little birding around Cape Point in the morning.

Least Bittern at Ramp 44.

Gull-billed Tern

A Dunlin, Red Knot, Sanderling and White-rumped Sandpiper walk onto a bar.  The Red Knot says "I don't like you guys".  The Sanderling says "Why Knot?".  "Your just not my type of Peeps".

White-rumped Sandpiper

Laughing Gull

Bank Swallow!

It was a great trip and I hope I can get out again before the summer is done.  White-faced Storm-petrel is my other pelagic nemesis and they usually show in August if at all.