If you follow this blog, you have probably read about my "pelagic" birding expeditions. Pelagic birding means that we are out on a boat in the ocean looking for birds that live way out there. Our friends Paul and Anita Guris run the trips through their side-hustle company called SeeLife Paulagics ( a nice play on words). They run about a dozen trips every year in winter and summer. I didn't think I could make the summer trip this year due to work schedule but at the last minute, my calendar opened up.
I took a vacation day and boarded the boat on Sunday night at 10 PM. The trip started out great. The weather was delightful, the stars were bright, the Perseid Meteor shower was in full swing. I slept a little bit but mostly watched the shooting stars and the Milky Way until about 4 AM when the boat came to a stop 85 miles off of the NJ coast. In the dark waters, we could see squid and flying fish under the spot lights and then a few birds flew past the boat in the pre-dawn light. Leach's Storm Petrels are most active at night. Our best chance to see them is at first light. We were not disappointed.
Leach's Storm Petrel at first light
Although we were out past the continental shelf, we were not alone. This ship was the backdrop for our first whale species of the day - Cuvier's Beaked Whale.
Cuvier's Beaked Whale
The birding and whale watching heated up quickly with many Band-rumped and Wilson's Storm Petrels following our boat.
Wilson's Storm Petrel
You can see the Pilot Whales heading toward the boat. The storm petrels are not afraid of the whales and stay on the surface of the water looking for food.
Pilot Whales
The whales came close to the boat. They didn't seem to mind us.
Me and the whales
Many of the whales were resting on the surface. They call this "logging" because they whales look like logs floating on the surface. If you listen closely, you can hear them breathing in this video.
We saw over 200 Pilot Whales by the end of the day. The ocean currents often carry seaweed from far away lands like Africa and South America. We often find Bridled Terns sitting on the floating debirs. Here is an adult that found a tree at sea.
Bridled Tern
The tern allowed the 100 foot boat to approach but then took off.
Bridled Tern
This "weed line" is a favorite for fisherman since it attracts fish that feed on the critters that live in the sea weed. We took the opportunity to investigate the hidden life by scooping up the Sargassum seaweed. We found a bunch of crazy life forms.
Sargassum Weed
This is the Sargassum crab which is completely camouflaged. We put the creatures into a little aquarium so that we could all get good looks and photos before returning them to the sea.
Sargassum Crab
Can you see the File Fish in this photo? Another camouflage specialist.
File Fish
This Jack fish is the opposite of camouflaged.
Young Jack
This is a jellyfish called By-the-Wind Sailor. It floats on the open ocean.
By-the-Wind Sailor
The best find in the net was this weird looking creature. It is a Sea Swallow. It is in the same family as a clam but doesn't have a shell. This mollusk is one of the only creatures that can eat a Man-of-War jellyfish. Man-of-Wars have a potent sting that can kill a person. The Sea Swallow becomes just as deadly when it has eaten the jellyfish. I was careful not to touch the creature as I moved it into position for the photograph. I swear it's looking at me. Creepy.
Sea Swallow
As I said, the weed line attracts fish like Mahi-Mahi that feed on the smaller fish that are feeding on the jellyfish, shrimp and crabs in the weed. As luck would have it, a few of the guys brought fishing rods along. We landed 4 Mahi-Mahi. Here is one jumping as it was reeled in.
I helped reel one in and was rewarded with a filet to take home. Yum.
I've been on many pelagic trips off of New Jersey and seen some amazing birds, whales, dolphins and other sea creatures. There is one bird that I haven't seen - the White-faced Storm Petrel. This bird has eluded me for years. The bird is very uncommon but is seen almost every year - just not on the day that I'm out there. My luck changed on this trip. Someone shouted - "this might be a white faced" and sure enough, we all saw the diagnostic Kangaroo hopping bird. It was indeed the White-faced Storm Petrel! I tried to get a few photographs.
White-faced Storm Petrel
You can see the white face on the bird. You can probably also imagine that the bird just hopped off of the water where the splash is but photos do not do this bird justice so I tried to take a few videos. Taking videos with my big camera is challenging. You'll have to endure the shake but I think you can see the Kangaroo hop.
At last, my curse was broken. Little did we know that this would not be the only sighting of the day. We found 2 more in the same area as the first bird. Most trips find 1 at most. We already had 3 and then we found 10 more for a total of 13 White-faced Storm Petrels. I think that might be a record for New Jersey. Crazy.
Most of the time on these trips, we get a burst of excitement and then hours of nothing. Not on this trip. Between storm petrel sightings, we saw a pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins who played with the boat.
No rest for the weary. With many eyes on board staring out at the ocean, we find a lot of creatures that break the water's surface with fins. We found 2 shark species. One was a Great Hammerhead which is easy to identify as it swam past the boat. The other had a large dorsal fin but never came close to the boat for identification. Another fin popped up. This time it wasn't a shark fin but a Mola Mola. These freaky creatures look like giant man-hole covers with long fins on top and bottom.
Mola Mola
They often float at the surface on their sides to absorb the warmth of the sun - hence the common name of Ocean Sunfish.
The most common fish of the day was Flying Fish. We saw hundreds or thousands of these as they flew away from the boat. It is amazing to watch them fly for hundreds of feet before crashing back into the water. I managed to capture this photo.
Flying Fish
Our last creature of the day was a lifer for our host Anita - Humpback Whale. We spotted a mother and calf about 30 miles from shore. As we approached, the whales were under the water but we could clearly see the mother's white flippers.
Humpback Whale underwater
Mom and calf were quite comfortable near the boat. You can see junior in the center. Mom is so big that only her blow hole is visible in the photo.
Humpback Whales
What a great day! I'm afraid to go out again and be disappointed. LOL.
Last week, the Bayshore had zero shorebirds. Zero. This week, hundreds of shorebirds were back from their arctic breeding bonanza. Connie and I spent some time on the beach watching the newly arrived birds feeding on the remaining horseshoe crab eggs and other stuff. There were mostly Semi-palmated Sandpipers and some Sanderlings too. Connie doesn't spend as much time studying birds as I do so we spent time today learning the difference between the species and differentiating between young birds and adults.
Our first lesson was to learn how to identify Sanderling. Sanderling are slightly larger than Semi-palmated Sandpipers. They also have more orange around the neck and only have 3 toes. We didn't focus on the toe thing since that requires a closer examination. At this time of year, Sanderling are molting from their bright brown/red breeding plumage to gray winter plumage. They will spend their time along our Bayshore making that change. This bird has just about begun the transformation. You can see a few gray feathers coming in on her back.
Sanderling - YN=
The fact that Sanderling are molting can make the identification either harder or easier. Harder because you can't look for the same pattern on each bird. Easier because you can assume that if the bird looks different, it is probably a Sanderling. On the other hand, the Semi-palmated Sandpipers are not molting which means that they all look the same. Whether they are well behaved like this little guy . . .
Semi-palmated Sandpiper
. . . or bickering like these two. Their feathers are all uniformly brown and boring.
Beach Brawl
The only way to really understand the birds that you are observing is to actually observe them. Spend time watching their behavior and noticing subtle plumage traits like molt. Only then will you truly learn about the bird.
Speaking of learning, our observation skills also alerted us to watch the Least Terns. Least Terns are an endangered species that nests on sandy beaches by the ocean. Cape May has protected areas for them and it has been very successful over the years. At this time of year, the babies are old enough to learn how to fend for themselves. They test their skills along the Bayshore since the water is calmer. Connie and I heard this guy calling to Mom while he tried his luck. He would fly along the shallow water . . .
Juvenile Least Tern
. . . and hover like this. He dove a few times but came up empty.
Juvenile Least Tern hovering
He called to Mom a lot as if saying "Look Mom. Look Mom". Mom watched from the sandbar.
Least Tern - Adult
I assume that she knew he would be successful and wasn't worried since she didn't budge to help. Look at the plumage difference between Junior and Mom. Mom has a bright yellow bill, black cap and white forehead that make her look like she's wearing a mask. Junior has a black bill and not much of a cap at all. He'll get their next year but for now, he needs to use all of his energy learning to fend for himself before heading south for the winter. Once again, we might mistake these 2 birds for separate species if we didn't take the time to learn that they were on the beach as a family.
Let's start this post out with a Ruby-throated Hummingbird nest. Harvey found this nest in Belleplain State Park while looking for another bird. Here is the female sitting in the nest.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird Nest
The bird that Harvey was looking for was this Kentucky Warbler. We heard the bird singing along Pine Swamp Road a few times. I went back to the spot to see if I could get a photo and was really pleased to get a few.
Kentucky Warbler
Kentucky Warbler
Another bird that we often here singing in Belleplain is Prothonotary Warbler. There is a place in the woods that has a post in the middle of the creek. I've waited and waited for the bird to perch on that post for years. It happened last week for about 3 seconds. I managed to get this photo.
Prothonotary Warbler
Another bird that usually doesn't pose is the Brown Thrasher. Drew and I scared up a couple who were nesting in a shrub near the visitor center in Virginia. They both popped out of the bush squawking at us.
Brown Thrasher
Back on the beach, I was doing my volunteer duty watching the shorebirds and snapped this photo of a Common Grackle walking along in the wind. The wind was blowing so hard, the bird couldn't keep his tail down.
Common Grackle
Overhead, this Osprey came back ashore with a fish. He flew right over my head with his catch of Menhaden.
Osprey with Menhaden
I was just happy to have a few birds to photograph recently.
As far as Loons go, we have 2 species that hang around our area in winter - Common Loon and Red-throated Loon. Occasionally, a loon from the west ends up on the wrong ocean for the winter. This year, a Pacific Loon has been spending time at Manasquan Inlet in NJ. I am old enough to remember my parents having a weather radio. Back in the day, we didn't have the Internet or mobile apps giving us up-to-the-moment weather alerts. Back in the 60's and 70's, we had a special radio that only provided weather information. Why is this relevant? Because the weather alerts included tide information "from Manasquan Inlet to Cape Henlopen" and I always wanted to know where Manasquan was. Now I know.
Marty and I decided to head down to the inlet in hopes of seeing the Pacific Loon. We have both seen Pacific Loons before. I saw one waaaaaaayyyyyy off of the beach in NJ a few years ago and we both saw them in Alaska flying past St. Paul Island. We wanted to see this one because reports were that the bird was swimming the inlet and giving everyone a close-up "show".
Of course, we headed down and encountered 20 mile per hour winds with strong gusts and 20 degree temperatures. That didn't deter us from standing along the inlet waiting. And waiting, and waiting for the Pacific Loon to make an appearance. We passed the time by photographing Common Loons and found one that had leg bands. You can see the red band in this photo and maybe even make out the light blue band on the other leg if you look closely.
Banded Common Loon
At long last, the Pacific Loon popped up across the inlet. We had brief views before it dove under again searching for a meal. This frustration continued for 20 minutes or so until finally, our perseverance paid off and the bird popped up right in front of us!
Pacific Loon
The field marks to look for on this bird are darker back, thinner bill, smaller overall, and the "chin strap" which is that dark line under the chin. You can see the chin strap in both photos.
Pacific Loon - shaking it off
Once we had our fill of the Pacific Loon, we headed down the coast through the seaside towns of Tom's River and Seaside Heights to Island Beach State Park. This park is on the other side of Barnegat inlet. I've never been to this side before and wanted to explore. There was a report of a Snow Owl on the dunes. We stopped to have a quick look.
Snow Owl
I noticed a falcon out of the corner of my eye. He was on the beach tearing the feathers off of his lunch. We couldn't tell what species of bird was on the menu but we were able to get pretty close. We initially thought it was a Peregrine but after review, the falcon is a Merlin.
Merlin
We walked the entire beach to the inlet which was over a mile. The wind was at our back on the journey. Now for the unpleasant walk back to the parking lot with the wind in our faces. Yuck. The state park allows vehicles on the beach. A guy stopped to ask if we needed a ride. We must have looked really bad. LOL. He alerted us to a seal on the beach. What a treat. This Harbor Seal could care less about the people or the trucks. She just lounged there occasionally looking around.
My bird club - DVOC - sponsors an intern each year at the Academy of Natural Sciences. We use money from fundraisers to help support the cost of the intern's work. The interns are then invited to give a presentation at a meeting. This year, Jenny gave a presentation with many topics but she ended by telling us about her upcoming work with Sanderlings. You should know by now that I spend alot of time on the beach in the Villas looking for tagged shorebirds (mainly Sanderlings). For instance, here is 13Y from July 2015
13Y
And here is again from this week! Back to the same beach.
13Y
Semipalmated Sandpipers are also banded. These birds return year after year too. I know 74J like an old friend. I first spotted this fiesty little bird in 2012 and have seen him every year since. Here he is from this week.
Old friend - 74J
Here is a new one to me. 25X.
25X
I really enjoy spotting these banded birds and recording the sightings on the bandedbirds.org website. I get to see history and maps of other sightings.
This year, there was a new twist involving Jenny and her research. She contacted me to ask if I knew anyone in the Villas that would be willing to have an antenna in their yard. You see, she is tracking Sanderlings with radio transmitters that are mounted on their backs. Our friends Diane and Terry now have an antenna in their yard. Low and behold, YJ+ showed up on the beach last week with an antenna sticking out of his back. You can see it in this photo.
YJ+ antennae bird
I contacted Jenny about it and sure enough, YJ+ is one of her study subjects. I can't wait to find out what Jenny learns from YJ+ and the others that have the radios. I know it seems cruel for the individual bird but YJ+ seemed no worse for wear and I'm sure the burden will help scientists protect their shorebird brethren.
It's that time of year again - shorebird time on the Delaware Bay. I only got to spend one day on the beach this year due to crappy weather and other commitments. It is the end of the season so most of the endangered Red Knots have already fattened up and left the bay for their arctic nesting grounds. I was fortunate to find a few stragglers including this one. Can you find him in the midst of the mob?
Red Knot
Even though the Red Knots were mostly gone, I did managed to find, photograph and report 29 banded Sanderling and a few Ruddy Turnstones. The best interaction was with a particular female Ruddy Turnstone 9EA. She was working the beach.
Ruddy Turnstone
She was really going to town digging for Horseshoe Crab eggs.
Digging
The digging paid off. She was rewarded with yummy eggs. You can see one in her beak.
Crab egg - yum!
But then, she was interrupted by a boyfriend. She was having none of it. She chased him right away!
Leggo my eggo!
Not even a couple yet and already squabbling.
I really like sitting on the beach during shorebird migration. I get to really watch the birds rather than just see them for a brief moment. I can spend hours watching them search for food, squabble, preen and rest. Great stuff.
