Saturday, September 29, 2012

Fall Seabirds & Whales Tales - 9/9/2012

The Fall version of the NECWA (New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance) Seabirds and Whales trip out of Plymouth Harbor was well attended. Over one hundred people were on board and among them were 40+ birders.  The weather was overcast with light NW winds, temps in the 60s, and clearing skies as we came back into Plymouth Bay. Seas were relatively calm.
The boat covered portions of SW Stellwagen Bank and waters off of Truro and Provincetown. Bird and whale numbers were modest, but one of the real highlites was seeing a pod of Common Dolphins along side the boat. This species is more often seen further out to sea. Five Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) were spotted as well, a nice count.

Complete list:

Common Loon  16
Cory's Shearwater  11
Great Shearwater  22
Manx Shearwater  9
Wilson's Storm-Petrel  11
Northern Gannet  95    All seemed to be migrating. Mix of adults and immatures.
Double-crested Cormorant  10
Greater Yellowlegs  1    Flyover near Race Point
Sanderling  10
Red-necked Phalarope  10
phalarope sp.  42    Distant; One flock of 30.
Laughing Gull  150    Race Point waters
Herring Gull (American)  60
Great Black-backed Gull  450    Majority @ Race Point Beach
Roseate Tern  2
Common Tern  400
Pomarine Jaeger  1
jaeger sp.  4
Peregrine Falcon  1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Also:
Humpback Whale - 12-15
Minke Whale - 2
Common Dolphin - approx. 20-25
Ocean Sunfish - 5

Vin Zollo

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