Seabirds

Common Terns Sitting on a Lobster Buoy

The all day trip that I was on Sunday.  Remember was entitled "Seabirds and Whales Tales".  So I would like to show some of the photos of seabirds that we saw.  A variety of seabirds were identified and could be seen with binoculars, but because of distances, and a lot of times flying away from the boat, it was hard to get photographs.  All four shearwaters were identified; Great, Cory's, Manx, and Sooty.  They were great black-backed gull's, herring gulls, laughing gulls and a second year black-luggage kittiwake.  The gulls ranged in age from first-year to adults in their plumage.  Common terns were flying around, along with parasitic jaeger in a northern fulmar.  Wilson's storm petrels were flitting all around.  If the whales were feeding, we would've seen a lot more seabirds because the seabirds like to pick up the sand lances that are left over.  Normally, chumming brings in a lot of birds, but the only ones that seem to be interested with a great black-back gulls.  All the northern Gannet's that we observed range from 1st to 3rd year plumage birds.

Shearwater Flying over the Wake from the Boat

Corey Shearwater With Reflection

Great Black-Backed Gull Sitting on a Buoy in the Shipping Lane

Great Black-backed Gull Landing for Chum

Northern Gannet in Flight

Second Year Plumage Black-Legged Kittiwake in Flight

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Finishing up a Great Weekend

Juvenile Laughing Gull

On Sunday, September 7, I celebrated my birthday by going on the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance Seabird and Whale's Tales Excursion.  This excursion occurs twice a year in June and September, and is the fundraiser for the organization to help their conservation efforts.  The spring trip was fantastic and that we saw between 40 and 45 humpback whales.  There are fantastic naturalists aboard, including Wayne Peterson gave running commentary on the birds that we saw and how to identify them, plus a commentary on the changing global climate.

This year's trip carried us to the northeast corner of Stellwagon Bank National Marine Sanctuary, after we cruised along the shore of Cape Cod from Races Point down to Truro.  There were greats sightings of birds, including a rare Sabine's gull.  We sighted all four species of shearwaters, along with three parasitic jaeger's.

Parasitic Jaeger

Parasitic Jaeger

Great and Cory's Shearwaters

Sabine's Gull

Great, Cory's, and Sooty Shearwaters

I also saw this very strange bird with strange wingtips that I could not identify :)

Cruising along Stellwagon, we came across the "Grand Dame of Stellwagon" Salt.  Salt was named by Captain Al Avellar who pioneered whale watching in New England.  This whale had a unique white pattern on her dorsal fin that reminded him of a sprinkle of salt- and that became her name. Salt is the first whale to be given a name. She has returned to the northwest Atlantic and the coast of New England every year since 1975, except one.  This year Salt has returned with her 13th calf.  Salt is also a grandmother.

Salt

Another whale that we saw named Bayou, who lost a portion of its fluke due to a strike by a ship's propeller.  In fact, because a major shipping lane crosses a portion of Stellwagon in the area where the right whales congregate, the shipping lanes have been moved 12 miles distant from where they originally were to help prevent strikes.  There is also a series of buoys that they are to sense the presence of whales, which the information is sent to ships in the area so that they can avoid them.

Bayou

One of the last whales that we observed was a very playful calf, who did rolls and all sorts of activities with its fluke and fins.

To be informed of when these trips occur, you can sign up at NECWA



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Tubenose – Procellariiformes

Black-footed Albatross

One of interesting orders of birds are the Tubenose – Procellariiformes.  The Tubenoses consists of four families: albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters, storm petrels, and diving petrels.  They are mainly pelagic, usually coming only onto land to breed.  The name tubenose comes from the tubular nasal passage that sits on top of their bill.  They utilize the nasal passage to help them locate prey because of the keen sense of smell.  Because the Procellariiformes drink seawater, they have to excrete excess salt, which they do by utilizing and a large nasal gland at the base of the bill above the eyes.  This gland removes the excess salt from the system and excretes it as a 5% saline solution that trip side of the nostrils of these birds.
The Procellariiformes vary in size from the extremely large albatrosses to the tiny storm petrels.  They are found across the world's oceans and seas.  Some species migrate from the southern oceans to the northern oceans.  In fact, the Sooty Shearwater makes an annual round-trip of around 40,000 miles.
I have observed these birds on pelagic trips, both on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.  One of my memorable experiences was on a three day pelagic voyage out from San Diego.  I was sitting in the main cabin, enjoying a midday snack, looking out the window, when in the distance, I saw a huge bird.  I said to myself.  That has to be an albatross, yes, it was an albatross, a Laysan albatross, my very first albatross.

Laysan Albatross

Black-footed Albatross landing feed with Western Gulls

Buller's Shearwater

Corey's Shearwater

Flesh-footed Shearwater

Great Shearwaters fighting

Great Shearwater

Northern Fulmar

Wilson's Storm-Petrel

Pink-footed Shearwater