| Pelagic Trip
(Tybee I., GA, Departure) 7 September 2002 Data provided by Bruce Dralle Text provided by James F. Flynn Jr.; photos by Pierre Howard and James F. Flynn, Jr. |
| Conditions | Seas 3 - 6 feet, afternoon swells to 9 ft. |
| No. of Species | 11 |
 Cory's Shearwater
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It was a bumpy ride, but we easily survived. Sixteen birders participated on the September 7 pelagic trip on the SCAT II out of Savannah. Minor worries about Tropical Storm Eduoard hanging around and churning the seas off of the north Florida coast were replaced with concerns that a southbound cold front would hit while we were at sea. On the way out, manageable 3
- 4 feet waves gave way to uncomfortable 4 - 6 footers on the way back, with 8 and 9 footers occasionally reshuffling our seating positions. Winds of 15 - 20+ knots from the northeast thwarted our attempt to reach the edge of the outer shelf, and we were lucky to reach 40 nautical miles. The rough seas shortened the trip, but we were lucky to make it out of port, as many of the fishing charters were either canceled or aborted soon after exiting the Savannah River's shipping channel. The August 24th sighting of the Brown and Masked Boobies on Navy Tower R7 easily defined one of the priorities of the trip. It would not take quite that long to find our first Masked Booby, an adult, but R7 was in site. We found the booby feeding with a mixed flock of terns and Cory's Shearwaters, but it departed shortly after we arrived in the direction of the tower. Most pelagic trips are punctuated by a sighting or two of some land-lubbers far out at sea. This trip produced twelve Great Blue Herons, two singles and a flock of ten in the vicinity of R7. At one point we also observed what I am almost positive was a bat, a somewhat large mostly brown individual, but the sighting was brief. Upon arrival at the tower, present were the usual mix of Common, Royal and Sandwich Terns, and an adult Masked Booby, perched on the tower's helipad, undoubtedly the same bird that we found feeding minutes earlier. Amazingly, to the left of the adult booby was a second Masked Booby in subadult plumage, a new addition since our trip in August. A band of showers arrived at the tower at roughly the same time that we did complicating photo opportunities (as if the heavy seas and abundant salt spray weren't challenging enough), but no matter, we had (re-) found one of our targets, and it was a life bird for several of the folks on the ship. Unfortunately, we never did find the immature Brown Booby. For the next several hours, we slowly worked our way through the Sargassum, which was widely scattered, in hopes of locating some phalaropes. We were unable to locate any, but in retrospect it was not that surprising given the size of a phalarope and the condition of the ocean surface. The only phalaropes observed on the trip were a distant and unidentifiable pair early in the morning. As the winds and waves increased during the late morning, it was becoming increasingly difficult to locate, let alone identify, larger birds such as Cory's Shearwaters. The captain advised that we would be unable to make it out any farther than the northern snapper banks and still make it back to port at a reasonable hour. We made the decision to turn back in the early afternoon, but we continued our search for phalaropes in vain. |
The table below shows the latitude and longitude of each sighting. The numbered circles on the map above correspond to the Map Location number of each sighting.
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