Thursday, 22 September 2016

Re: [Maine-birds] 2 more Great Skuas on Sept.18 GOM ferry crossing

Hi Tom,

Great trip! Long-tailed Jaeger is the real star. Was that in Maine waters? If so, it's a review species and would be something good to document (photos or at least description).

Cheers,

Louis

On Sep 22, 2016, at 1:42 PM, Thomas Robben <robben99@gmail.com> wrote:

GREAT SKUAS SEEN ALONG 210-MILE "CAT" FERRY CROSSING OF GOM

Hi Everyone:

​September 17-18​
 was the only weekend we could schedule this long Gulf Of Maine "overnight pelagic"
​round-​
trip for, and sorry for the
​ Saturday​
conflict with the excellent annual Maine Audubon pelagic trip, but we (6 observers
​assembled
 together with only one week lead time) did okay with the birds, including our #1 target, GREAT SKUA;  we got two of them, fairly close
​ to the ship on 9/18​. As noted in 3 places below, I also ran a preparatory trip on this route on Sept.12th and filled-in a few additional species (Fulmar, Cory's and one more Great Skua):

Northern Fulmar - 0, 0
​ ​
 (10 on Monday 9/12 prep trip).
Cory's Shearwater - 0, 0
​  ​
(1 on Monday 9/12). 
Great Shearwater - 20, 85.
Sooty Shearwater - 0, 0.
Manx Shearwater - 3, 2.
Wilson's Storm-Petrel -200, 40. 
Leach's Storm-Petrel - 0, 2. 
Northern Gannet - 32, 32. 
Double-crested Cormorant - 1, 0. 
Red-necked Phalarope - 2, 0. 
phalarope species - 12, 14.
Black-legged Kittiwake - 2, 0.
Bonaparte's Gull - 10, 0.
Herring Gull - 7, 3.
Great Black-backed Gull - 15, 9.
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2, 1.
tern species - 31, 6.
Arctic Tern - 13, 0.
GREAT SKUA - 0, 2
​ ​
 (
​plus
 1 on Monday 9/12) 
Pomarine Jaeger - 3, 2.
Long-tailed Jaeger - 1, 0.
jaeger species - 3, 16.
Atlantic Puffin - 1, 0.

The pairs of numbers shown are for birds seen on 9/17 and
​ on​
9/18
​, the two legs of our GOM ferry round trip, 210-miles each way​
.   Harbor birds are excluded. 

We also confirmed that the new CAT ferry (formerly called Alakai
​ Superferry​
, when it was working in Hawaii) is more bird
er​-
friendly than we expected. Even at high speed (35 knots) the ship is stable and has less vibration than we expected. The front views from behind glass are good, and the two side views from open decks are excellent and a full 180 degrees wide. The open rear deck is a good place to sit and relax, but hot exhaust from the engines
​ can​
blur parts of that rear view. All onboard facilities are very good, and the crew is very friendly and helpful.
​    ​

Thanks to our collaborative team of
​ six​
Observers
​ that worked well together​
:   
Nicole Giambro,  Christine Howe,  Anthony Laguidara,  Dan Nickerson,  Dave Pettee,  Tom Robben.

Thanks to HAS (Hartford Audubon Society
​, CT​
) for enabling this trip, and thanks to Bay Ferries Ltd for working closely with us on this project. 

For more trip details and photos, see this website:

​And see David Pettee eBird reports on 9/18/2016 for skua photos.​

Thanks and good birding,

Tom Robben




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