My first autumn pelagic out of New York, his time on a boat from Brooklyn. We steamed out overnight, getting to deep water by about 5:30am. The sea was quite rough, so many birders contributed to the chum slick, myself included. First birds of the morning were
Wilson's Storm Petrel, quite a late date for this species. Next up were
Black-capped Petrel, a real treat. The winds were high so they shot past quite quickly, but they kept returning and we got excellent views.
After a few hours we changed location and followed some trawlers. This time the main species was
Great Shearwater, of which there were many. They were amazingly confiding, some of them coming almost within touching distance of the boat. Several
Northern Fulmar made an appearance, as did a
Manx Shearwater, and both subspecies of
Cory's Shearwater.
The trip back was fairly quiet, but quite a list of birds was racked up, including;
Kittiwake, Arctic Skua (Parasitic Jaeger), Pomarine Skua (Pomarine Jaegar), Northern Gannet and
Royal Tern.
Fabulous views of
Great Shearwater coming into the chum were had for a number of hours.
One or two birds came extremely close to the boat to feed on the fish and suet chunks.
Though the
Herring Gulls bullied them mercilessly...
Bird of the day were the dozen or so
Black-capped Petrels that were attracted to the chum slick. Sadly they didn't come very close to the boat.
The white rump is very noticeable...
We had several good views of
Cory's Shearwater during the day, of both subspecies...
...the first bird was of the nominate race
C. d. diomedea,
Skopoli's Shearwater. Note the white underwing bleeding into the primaries
There were also several
C. d. borealis, with dark based primaries giving a sharper boundary between the underwing and the primaries.
Quite a few
Northern Fulmar throughout the afternoon.
On the way back a couple of Skuas were spotted, including this
Arctic Skua (Parasitic Jaeger).
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
