| Pelagic Trip
(Tybee I., GA, Departure) 21 February 2003 Data provided by Bruce Dralle Text and photos provided by Giff Beaton and James F. Flynn Jr. |
| Conditions | Seas 2 - 5 feet, heavy fog most of the day |
| No. of Species | 16 |
|
It all started with an enticing early January 2003
email from Brian Patteson to an interested seabirding community, exclaiming
that Razorbills and other alcids were once again showing up well south
of their usual wintering areas of the North Atlantic. It was the exact excuse
that Giff Beaton had been waiting for to attempt another winter pelagic in
Georgia waters. But would Georgia birders be willing to embark on
another February pelagic trip after the misery that they had endured on 21
February 1999? Of course they would! Pelagic birders have either a
high tolerance for misery or, and this is more likely, a low tolerance for
misery and short memories.
Just to make things interesting, Giff planned this foray into the deep blue on the same date, 21 February. His strategy would be a little different this time, including a later departure time to ensure that the in-shore waters could be covered in daylight and a more defined search area to limit the trip to the cooler waters of the inner and middle shelf. Once again using the SCAT II, skippered by Captain Steve Amick, we left Tybee Island at 6:30 AM on 21 February 2003 for relatively calm seas, but in heavy fog. We slowly made our way out sea though, and by 7:45, we had our first Razorbill, the fifth record for Georgia (pending acceptance by the GOS Checklist and Records Committee), and one of 36 that we would encounter during the trip. Interestingly, we would find several small flocks of Razorbills attended by at least one Bonaparte's Gull. When the Razorbills would dive (either for food or to keep their distance from the ship), we needed only to follow the Bonaparte's Gull to re-locate the surfacing Razorbills, an otherwise difficult task given the conditions. We were plagued by fog and occasional misty rain all day long, with only brief periods of distant visibility, but the slow and methodical search of the waters above known live bottom areas, plus a little bit of good fortune, enabled us to make the most of the trip. It seemed as though throughout the morning that we were either nosing up to Razorbills or inadvertently disrupting a flock of Red Phalaropes. Most of the phalarope groups that we would find were just a handful of birds, but on one occasion we located a raft of phalaropes that covered the ocean surface in front of the ship for as far as we could see (a photo of the a portion of the phalarope cloud may be seen at the left). The first of our Manx Shearwaters would also appear at this time, Georgia's tenth record (pending acceptance by the GOS Checklist and Records Committee), and we would soon find a small flock of four of this rarely-reported Georgia species casually floating near the mass of phalaropes. Non-pelagic birds always add to the excitement of the day, and on this trip a pair of west-bound Yellow-rumped Warblers (22 nautical mis. out), a Greater Yellowlegs (observed and identified by calls, 34 nautical mis. out) and a Peregrine Falcon (35 nautical mis.) punctuated a great day. The latter species was observed perched on US Navy Tower R7. Most of the afternoon and the trip back to port was rather dull, with only the occasional Bonaparte's Gull or Northern Gannet being reported. |
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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Created 3 Mar 2003
