News

We just ran 17 consecutive days of pelagic birding trips from Hatteras, NC. Compared to last year, day by day diversity was low, but we found nearly all of the expected species including multiple sightings of Bermuda, Fea's, and Trindade Petrels and European Storm-Petrels. The surprise bird of the season was on Day 17. We found a Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel well offshore and enticed it to feed in our chum slick for about half an hour. Hundreds of photos were taken and hopefully this will be a bulletproof record with the quality of photos. Our August 8, 1998 Swinhoe's off Hatteras was not accepted despite good photos considering the conditions of that sighting (hot pursuit.) It was great to watch this bird feeding with the Wilson's and to get a close look at the birds features in a relaxed setting. The bill is rather stout compared to Leach's and the "Band-rumped" types which occur here. Band-rumps are getting split out and will be a big challenge for us in the future. Molt timing and close study of photos could enable us to figure them out.

We still have plenty of space on all of our remaining spring and summer trips. Many red letter birds have been seen in June, July, and August, and this is prime time for numbers of the more common birds.

We were out from Hatteras yesterday with a small group and had a great jaeger show with about 10 or 12 Pomarines, one Parasitic, and two Long-tails. We had four to six Pomarine Jaegers behind the boat for most of the day. We saw about 30 Black-capped Petrels, with some great looks while we were drifting with our chum slick. An early Cory's Shearwater was a surprise. We also saw several Wilson's Storm-Petrels and a few Manx Shearwaters. We also saw a small gadfly petrel (not Black-capped), but did not get a good view in the harsh early morning light. The wind was from the west-southwest at about 15 knots for most of the day. We also had trips planned for April 25 and 26, but we could not run them because they were under subscribed. While fishing on April 25, I also saw Bridled Tern and Audubon's Shearwater. A local charter captain reported a tropicbird here on April 22.

If you would like to receive e-mail updates about our trips and news of recent sightings, please contact me at brian@patteson.com

Some Favorite Old Home Page Photos

Bermuda Petrel is not supposed to have a white nape, but this one did.

On June 19, 2005, we saw and photographed three different Fea's Petrels off Hatteras on a birding charter on the Little Clam. This ties the record count from one of our Oregon Inlet trips last spring.

We saw an unprecedented number of European Storm-Petrels this spring. We saw and photographed six on five consecutive trips between May 30 and June 5. There is still only one accepted record for North America, so this was a significant incursion.

Cape Verde Shearwater Calonectris edwardsii (with Cory's Shearwater on left) photographed off Hatteras, NC August 15, 2004

We've been hoping to see this bird here for years. Finally around 1045 on Sunday, August 14, 2004, I spotted this little guy in a flock of Cory's, while looking for Greater Shearwater, which was scarce that day. This bird is actually smaller than a Greater, and used to be treated as a subspecies of Cory's, but you can see here that is very distinctive looking, with a much darker bill. This should represent a first record for North America and the western North Atlantic. -BP (Click Here for more images of this bird.)

Black-b. St.-Petrel Off Oregon Inlet on 5/31/04!

On May 31st 2004 Capt. John Gallop spotted an immature Black-bellied Storm-Petrel 42 miles SE of Oregon Inlet. The bird was observed by everyone aboard including trip leaders Mike Overton and Mike Tove from 1420 to 1450 EDT while it flew with 135 Wilson's Storm-Petrels, 5 Leach's Storm-Petrels and 2 Band-rumped Storm-Petrels over a Menhaden oil slick. The water depth was 870 fathoms and the sea temperature was approximately 72 degrees F.

Black-b. St.-Petrel Off Oregon Inlet on 5/31/04!

First European Storm-Petrel?