On Saturday, gloriously calm seas and light winds awaited the first ½ Day Pelagic from Portland sponsored by See-Life Paulagics and the Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth aboard the Odyssey. The only thing that beat the weather was the birding!

Paul Guris and I guided, along with spotters Anita Guris, Don Mairs, and Mike Fahay. Many thanks to E.J. Raynor and Dan Nickerson for the excellent chumming job – we thank them for doing our dirty work! A delicious menu of chopped herring and mackerel, bunker oil, and popcorn courtesy of Nickelodeon Cinemas (which was then soaked in fish blood, mmm-mmm good) was served up to bring birds close to the boat.

Dan shows off the good stuff.

I was really amazed by the amount of activity was had for most of the trip. Once we hit deep water, the tubenose activity was virtually non-stop. The chum slick had constant activity, with up to 14 Greater and 4 Sooty Shearwaters closely following the boat at a given time, but every time you looked in the wake, there would be Greater and Sooty Shearwaters and a small swarm of Wilson’s Storm Petrels.

E.J. feeds our friends.

An adult Atlantic Puffin that passed by - close enough to see the colors of the bill! – was definitely a highlight, as was the performance by the school of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins. I was really surprised by the puffin, they are quite rare this far south in the summer, and seeing 8-9 different Northern Fulmars was really spectacular! Many of the fulmars made some very close passes, including one rare-in-the-Atlantic dark morph.

Mike in action.

We took a clockwise loop from Outer Green Island, south to Trinidad Ledge. Then, we headed due south before turning west, then north to South and North Tanta Ledges, and then skimming Ram Island. The maximum distance from land was 25 miles.

Pelagic birding is really hit or miss. It’s a big sea out there, and food is patchily distributed. But today, we were finding the needles in the haystack, and the smooth-as-glass conditions really optimized the effectiveness of our chum slick.

Paul makes the call as our Captain maneuvers the ship.

Here are the totals for the trip:

Common Loon: 50-60
NORTHERN FULMAR: 8-9, including one dark morph.
Greater Shearwater: ~50
Sooty Shearwater: 20+
Wilson’s Storm Petrel: ~200
Leach’s Storm Petrel: 1 probable (briefly seen by a small number of folks)
Northern Gannet: 50+
Double-crested Cormorant: ##
Great Blue Heron: 1
Common Eider: ##
White-winged Scoter: 1
Shorebird sp:
Laughing Gull: 6
Bonaparte’s Gull: 2
Ring-billed Gull: 20+
Herring Gull: ##
Great Black-backed Gull: ##
Roseate Tern: 2
Common Tern: many 100’s
Black Guillemot: ~30
ATLANTIC PUFFIN: 1 adult

Other species recorded on and near islands:
Rock Pigeon, American Crow, Tree Swallow, Bank Swallow, European Starling, Song Sparrow.

Mammals:
~35 Atlantic White-sided Dolphin (one large, scattered pod)
1 Minke Whale
5 Harbor Porpoise
10+ Harbor Seals

Butterflies:
1 Red Admiral

Space is available for our next trip is Sunday, August 19th, 5:30am to 11:30am. Contact See Life Paulagics (www.paulagics.com) or the Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth (www.yarmouthbirds.com) for more information. For reservations, contact See Life Paulagics at info@paulagics.com, or by calling 215-234-6805.