[Maine-birds] Offshore birding aboard F/V Nor'easter (14 May 2021)...

Hi all,

On Friday, May 14th, I boarded the F/V Nor'easter out of Kennebunk
with Capt. Mike Perkins, mate Steve Kaczala and 16 others for a
fishing trip out to the north end of Jeffrey's Ledge off York County.
We exited the Kennebunk River mouth at 7:15am and motored ESE just
over 25 miles, arriving at the fishing grounds at ~8:45am.

We fished the area for 4 hours with minimal moves, due to low drift
and much success catching Haddock. (Some Pollock and other species
were caught, but the majority of our take was Haddock). Just before
1pm, we wrapped up fishing for the day and headed back toward
Kennebunk. We made it back to the dock shortly after 3pm.

A beautiful day on the water, bright and sunny to start, becoming
partly to mostly cloudy in the early afternoon, low to mid 50sF, light
W wind becoming SW ~10 mph; light seas 1-2' throughout.

I had two brief views of whales while at Jeffrey's Ledge (no dolphins
or porpoises noted). The bulk of the bird diversity was observed while
on the fishing grounds, rather than while motoring. The boat's new
motor (top speed of ~15 knots vs 11-12 in prior seasons) means that
birding while traveling to/from the ledge is a bit more challenging.

Note: In past years, these daily fishing trips ran from 7:30am to
~4:30pm, but with the new motor cutting down on travel time, the trips
now run from 7:00am to ~3:00pm.

And now for the bird report:

HERRING GULL, GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL, and NORTHERN GANNET were seen
nearly throughout the trip, but a number of other species were
observed (though some poorly, distantly or briefly), including:

RED-NECKED PHALAROPE -- flock of 6 spiffy birds
LESSER YELLOWLEGS -- flock of ~12 (25 miles offshore!)
THICK-BILLED MURRE -- 1, I think, based on a blurry photo
BONAPARTE'S GULL -- 10+
LAUGHING GULL -- 2 adults
BLACK TERN -- 2+
STERNA SP. -- presumably most/all COMMON TERN
WILSON'S STORM-PETREL -- 10+
NORTHERN FULMAR -- 6+ including at least 1 dark morph
NORTHERN GANNET -- 25+ mostly immature birds
UNIDENTIFIED PASSERINE -- 11 (warblers?) flying west
UNIDENTIFIED BIRD -- 1 hummingbird?!

Segment 1: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88131420
Segment 2: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88131645
Segment 3: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88131747
Segment 4: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88131806
Segment 5: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88131845
Segment 6: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88131899
Segment 7: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88131935
Segment 8: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88131958
Segment 9: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88131984
Segment 10: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88132008
Segment 11: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88132035
Segment 12: https://ebird.org/me/checklist/S88132054

Wildly,
Josh

237 Reasons to Go Outside... joshfecteau.com

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