May Pelagic (31May2020)

The forecast for my pelagic was kind of hairy with strong winds from the NE gusting to 25mph in the afternoon.  Although this is not conducive to good picture taking, tubenoses love a good wind.  It did not take long to start accumulating storm-petrels once we got out into the gulf stream and put out the chum slick.

This Wilson's was doing its best Band-rumped impression.

I love Black-capped Petrels and have a hard time winnowing the photos down to a manageable number.

We had one Sooty Shearwater early but got much better looks later.

YES!! I can now add BCPE to my Birds Pooping page.

Cory's Shearwaters were in and out all day.

A dark-faced BCPE.  What a pretty bird.



Most of the Cory's were of the Borealis sub-species.  Note the dark wing tips.



BCPE. Some of the darker ones tricked me into thinking something more interesting.



Then this dark morph Trindade flew in and gave us some awesome looks.

Yes the ocean was rough!

I have noticed the photo quality on Blogger seems to be getting worse.  I don't have the pixellation issues on my MacBook when I open the photos directly but they are showing them in Blogger...

Great Shearwaters took their sweet time but eventually did show.

A white-faced BCPE - snappy!

Cory's in an angry sea.

Great Shearwater

Wilson's SP

Scopoli's subspecies of Cory's Shearwater.  Note the white primaries extending to wing tips.

Greater

BCPE

Greater

Greater with Wilson's SP

Sooty

Manx Shearwater!  No one noticed this at the time and dismissed all the smaller white and black shearwaters as Audubon's.

 Every trip out to the gulf stream is a good trip, but it has been a long time since I have lifered on one.  Bermuda Petrel and White-faced SP are my logical targets but you never know what you will get out there and until I get those two, I suspect I will continue to try.