BBC Overnight Pelagic August 28-29, 2023 – Trip Report

Leaders: Peter Flood, Liam Waters, Keenan Yakola

BBC trip organizers: Naeem Yusuff, Bobbie Hodson, Sebastian Jones

Data compiled by P. Flood; eBird lists and trip report by S. Jones


Nearly cancelled due to weather and the approaching Tropical Storm Franklin, we braved fog, rain and occasional bumpy waters and were rewarded. 56 hardy birders departed Hyannis early Monday morning aboard the Helen H, heading out beyond the Nantucket Shoals to Veatch, Nantucket and Atlantis Canyons before dropping anchor at the latter for the night. The next morning we continued west through occasional showers before heading north between Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and back to port by 5pm.

Trip highlights included:

3 White-faced Storm-Petrel
1 South Polar Skua
At least 6 Long-tailed Jaegers
4 Band-rumped Storm-Petrel
2 Leach’s Storm-Petrel
At least 78 Audubon’s Shearwater

We were also treated to a number of migrating shorebirds (Red Knot, Least, Semipalmated and Spotted Sandpipers, Greater Yellowlegs) and a few passerines including a Prothonotary Warbler, bizarrely the second year in a row one had approached the Helen H while anchored overnight.

Other wildlife seen during our trip included:

Leatherback Sea Turtle
Manta Ray sp.
Fin Whale
Bottlenose Dolphin
Common Dolphin
Mola Mola

Thanks to the overnight fishing efforts of the crew and some trip participants, we were fortunate to have the option of taking home some delicious Yellowfin Tuna once we returned to port.

BBC Overnight Pelagic August 28-29, 2023 – Trip Report2024-02-14T18:50:37-05:00

BBC Extreme Pelagic August 27-28, 2022 – Trip Report

Date – 6:00 AM 8/27/22 (Saturday) to 5:00 PM 8/28/22 (Sunday)

Weather – Variable. Saturday started out cloudy as we headed out over the Nantucket shoals to sunny as we hit the shelf edge. Winds moderate out of the SW creating a small, but turbulent sea which kept things very “bouncy” for much of the trip out to Veatch Canyon. But very comfortable as we rode the winds east over the eastern part of Veatch. The winds died down for a nice overnight on the boat, but they picked up and switched to the northeast on Sunday morning, but then died down by noon on the way back. Several birders were sick going out, but most recovered nicely for the 2nd day.

Boat – 100′ long “Helen H” fishing boat out of Hyannis, MA. Captained by Joe Huckemeyer

Participants – 50 participants plus 7 leaders

Leaders – Naeem Yusuff, Bobbie Hodson, Nick Bonomo, Steve Mirick, Seabird McKeon, Tom Johnson, Doug Gochfeld

Route – We traveled south along the east side of Nantucket and along the western edge of the cool, shallow, waters of the Nantucket Shoals before turning straight for Veatch Canyon which is an underwater canyon along the edge of the continental shelf. Our target was a sharp temperature gradient along the edge of a warm water eddy which was shown on Sea Surface Water Temperature charts. Once we got to the shelf edge, we traveled south through the middle of the warm waters of the underwater canyon before turning east, bisecting the sharp temperature gradient. We worked this sharp north-south gradient line covering shallow to deep water for the remainder of the trip, finishing with chum in 80F water at the 1,000 fathoms (6,000 feet) water depth on Sunday morning. The highest sea surface temperatures were in the range of 80F to 82F in a strong warm-water eddy centered south of us. Our route is shown in the following maps:

Bird Highlights – There were many highlights of the trip for birds, but I think all will agree, the most memorable highlight of the trip was on Saturday afternoon. After traveling south through the hot ocean water of Veatch Canyon, we were having trouble finding any birds. So, we turned east toward a sharp temperature gradient in the ocean just east of the canyon. As we turned east, we had both the sun and the wind at our back as we cruised comfortably at a nice slow speed and the water temperature suddenly dropped from 81F to 74F! Then all of a sudden, a White-faced Storm-Petrel appeared, then a couple, and suddenly, more appeared, and within a short period of time we realized that they were spread out everywhere as far as you could see!! In one of the most surreal events ever witnessed; staggering numbers of White-faced Storm-Petrels were recorded. The total of 589 birds on Saturday far exceeds any daily totals ever recorded in the United States; and most of these came within about 2 hours! Between the hour of 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM alone 425 White-faced Storm-Petrels were counted!!!

Other specialty rare birds of the shelf edge included numerous excellent views of Leach’s Storm-Petrels and Audubon’s Shearwaters and several nice, but (as usual) brief views of shy Band-rumped Storm-Petrels. Several Long-tailed Jaegers gave spectacular views as they hovered right over the top of the boat! Finishing off in the deep water, we made a last minute “hail Mary” attempt at a Black-capped Petrel by chumming in deep warm waters. And succeeded!! On the way out and back we also had good looks at most of the typical inshore pelagic birds including nice, prolonged views and photos of a “Scopoli’s” Shearwater!

Another bird highlight of the trip (at least for some who weren’t asleep!) was the incredibly rare overnight influx of passerines and shorebirds! Attracted by the running lights of the boat and perhaps impacted by patchy evening fog over the canyon, the boat became surrounded by birds after everyone had gone to bed on Saturday night! These birds circled the boat several times and apparently were calling so loudly that birders on the upper deck were woken up by the calls and even birders inside the cabin reported hearing them! By dawn it was over except for a couple of Barn Swallows which had landed on the boat, but soon left. This remarkable event included several species of shorebird and warblers highlighted by a Prothonotary Warbler which was even photographed!!!

Prothonotary Warbler by Jason

Prothonotary Warbler by Jason

Non-bird Highlights – As usual, there were lots of other wildlife to observe offshore, and while the conditions weren’t as spectacular as last year’s trip, we managed several nice sightings including two of the rarest species of “great whales” with views of Sperm Whales and a North Atlantic Right Whale!

Data Recording – Nick Bonomo, Doug Gochfeld, and Tom Johnson shared the laborious job of recording all bird sightings (and additional marine sightings) into eBird with roughly 1-hour intervals. These checklists will be shared, and details are shown in the eBird “Trip Report” link below. Photographers are also encouraged to enter their sightings in iNaturalist. See Mckeon runs an inaturalist.org project called “Offshore Wildlife”. Photos can be submitted here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/offshore-wildlife

Trip Report in eBirdhttps://ebird.org/nh/tripreport/74021

Complete Bird List

(total of all birds including those inside of Hyannis harbor broken down into daily totals)

Mallard (2,0)
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) (14,0)
Semipalmated Plover (1,0)
Sanderling (19,4)
Least Sandpiper (1,16)
Semipalmated Sandpiper (5,6)
peep sp. (9,15)
Red-necked Phalarope (113,103)
Red Phalarope (0,4)
phalarope sp. (1,0)
Spotted Sandpiper (0,3)
shorebird sp. (4,0)
Parasitic Jaeger (1,1)
Pomarine/Parasitic Jaeger (1,0)
LONG-TAILED JAEGER (3,7)
jaeger sp. (2,0)
Laughing Gull (0,1)
Herring Gull (19,12)
Herring Gull (American) (9,25)
Lesser Black-backed Gull (2,10)
Great Black-backed Gull (16,25)
Larus sp. (0,3)
gull sp. (10,0)
Least Tern (4,2)
Black Tern (2,0)
Roseate Tern (4,6)
Common Tern (88,49)
Common Tern (hirundo/tibetana) (1,0)
Sterna sp. (160,12)
tern sp. (0,1)
Common Loon (8,0)
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel (380,151)
WHITE-FACED STORM-PETREL (589,42)
Leach’s Storm-Petrel (78,58)
BAND-RUMPED STORM-PETREL (12,1)
Hydrobates sp. (38,2)
storm-petrel sp. (2,5)
BLACK-CAPPED PETREL (0,1)
Cory’s Shearwater (31,17)
CORY’S SHEARWATER (SCOPOLI’S) (1,0)
Cory’s Shearwater (borealis) (12,20)
Great Shearwater (99,35)
Sooty Shearwater (13,6)
Manx Shearwater (9,0)
AUDUBON’S SHEARWATER (29,7)
black-and-white shearwater sp. (1,1)
shearwater sp. (3,1)
Procellariid sp. (1,0)
Northern Gannet (2,4)
Double-crested Cormorant (23,0)
Osprey (carolinensis) (0,1)

Cooper’s Hawk (0,1)

American Crow (0,20)

Barn Swallow (2,2)
Barn Swallow (American) (1,0)

PROTHONOTARY WARBLER (0,1)
American Redstart (0,1)
Cape May Warbler (0,1)
Yellow Warbler (0,3)

Marine Mammals

Fin Whale – Several
Humpback Whale – Including one individual breaching several times, but from a distance.
SPERM WHALE – 2 at the same time. Mostly blow views, but briefly, one right next to the boat before it dove. We played “whack-a-mole” as we rushed back and forth between these two whales as each dove by the time we arrived!
NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE – 1 seen over the Nantucket Shoals as we headed back. Distant views as we maintained our distance as required by law. But excellent study of the V-shaped blows produced by this extremely rare whale and got to see the shape and color of the tail when it fluked. This species is in serious trouble as the worldwide population has been steadily decreasing over the last 10 years and now stands at approximately 336 whales.
Bottlenose Dolphin (offshore) – A few small pods.
Common Dolphin – A few small pods.
Gray Seal – 2. Waiting for a handout at the Helen H slip when we returned to port.

Fish

HAMMERHEAD SHARK SP. – At least one cruising back and forth along the side of the boat before dawn on Sunday morning. We photographed Scalloped hammerhead on last year’s trip.
Yellowfin Tuna – Several caught in predawn hours on Sunday! Quite a sudden flurry of activity for fish on Sunday morning. A few reeled in by Nick Bonomo and Jason Lambert! Everyone got to bring home some Ahi!!!

Yellowfin Tuna - Jason by Steve Mirick

Yellowfin Tuna - Jason by Steve Mirick

Yellowfin Tuna by Steve Mirick

Yellowfin Tuna by Steve Mirick

Skipjack Tuna – Lots in predawn feeding frenzy before dawn on Sunday. Several caught.
Flying Fish – A small number of flying fish seen in the deep warm water. One flew out and landed on the boat! Appears to be Atlantic Flyingfish (Cheilopogon melanurus).
GIANT MANTA RAY (Mobula birostris) – A couple of sightings of this

Flying Fish sp. by Dave Larson

Flying Fish sp. by Dave Larson

BBC Extreme Pelagic August 27-28, 2022 – Trip Report2024-02-14T18:52:10-05:00

Brookline Bird Club “Extreme Pelagic” Trip Report

This year marked the 20th anniversary of when Nick Samson and Eddie Giles organized the first Brookline Bird Club trip to the offshore shelf edge on a 24 hour Captain John “slowboat” marathon trip out of Plymouth when the club found a White-faced Storm-Petrel. Because of the great success in finding this mega-rarity, the club wanted to continue the trips, but didn’t have an appropriate boat. In 2004, Ida Giriunas and Tom Prince found the “Helen H” fishing boat, which was a much faster boat and was based out of Hyannis. Since then, day trips and overnight trips have been run nearly every year with Ida Giriunas as the stalwart organizer and leader before her passing in 2019. I’m sure she was present in spirit for this trip and for all those in the future.

Date – 6:00 AM 8/7/21 (Saturday) to 5:00 PM 8/8/21 (Sunday)

Weather – Incredibly little wind for the entire trip with glassy seas and not much wave height making for incredible photo opportunities. Some residual seas over the shallow, rough waters of Nantucket Shoals knocked out about 5 birders briefly early on Saturday, but things quickly calmed down over the deep waters and for the rest of the trip. Skies were partly to mostly sunny with some morning clouds on Sunday.

Boat – 100′ long “Helen H” fishing boat out of Hyannis, MA. Captained by Joe Huckemeyer

Participants – 52 participants plus 6 leaders

Leaders – Naeem Yusuff, Bobbie Hodson, Marshall Iliff, Steve Mirick, Peter Flood, John Garrett

Route – The Helen H headed south along the east side of Nantucket and along the western edge of the cool, shallow, waters of the Nantucket Shoals before turning straight for Hydrographer Canyon which is along the edge of the continental shelf. Once we got to the shelf edge, we traveled south through the middle of the underwater canyon before turning east toward an adjacent small canyon known as “Dogbody Canyon”. We circled back and forth and drifted between these two canyons for the entire trip and then returned with another pass north through Hydrographer before heading home. The deepest water encountered was over 1 mile deep in Hydrographer Canyon. Sea surface temperatures were difficult to gauge due to a broken thermometer, but satellite images showed a very large uniform swath of moderately warm water encompassing the shelf edge from Veatch Canyon east to Oceanographer Canyon and beyond with a lot of warm water spilling over far up onto the shelf. The highest sea surface temperatures were in the range of 75F to 78F.

Bird Highlights – Unlike recent trips, mega-rarities were limited, but we managed to get great looks at one of the rarest and most highly sought after birds in the United States, the White-faced Storm-Petrel. The only other rare, specialty bird of the warm offshore shelf-edge waters that we encountered was the Audubon’s Shearwater, which has become regular on these trip. It was a bit disappointing not to get Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, but we tried hard for it and they are always irregularly encountered off the MA coast. Aside from rarities, there were many, many, great looks and photo opportunities for most or the “nice” pelagic birds of inshore waters.

The deep warm waters of the shelf edge held large numbers of Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, Leach’s Storm-Petrels, and Audubon’s Shearwaters, but only a very small number of Great Shearwaters and almost no Cory’s Shearwaters. With the calm winds, the storm-petrels were rafting on the water in many small to medium sized flocks, and we aimed the boat toward all that we could see. Chumming was not productive in mid-afternoon with calm winds. Later in early evening, chumming was much more successful with a light wind and hungry birds. The White-faced Storm-Petrel was along the shelf edge, just to the east of Hydrographer and was seen on Sunday morning, loosely associating with a raft of Wilson’s. The Nantucket shoals had a great supply and variety of typical in-shore pelagic birds including a very close fly-by Leach’s Storm-Petrel and all of the jaegers, terns, and gulls for the trip.

Non-bird Highlights – Perhaps more a highlight of this trip was the incredible show of marine wildlife. Every trip seems to produce a different experience, and this trip perhaps will become most famous for the incredible views and photo opportunities for whales, dolphins, sharks, fish, and Man o’ wars! It looks like the trip recorded its first ever confirmed sighting of Cuvier’s Beaked Whale, and photographers were able to get spectacular photos of Scalloped Hammerhead Shark and Tiger Shark! The glassy seas provided wonderful views and a rare experience not to be forgotten. When the Helen H first approached Hydrographer Canyon on Saturday, sharks, dolphins, and whales were EVERYWHERE!

Data Recording – Marshall Iliff did a great job in recording all bird sightings (and additional marine sightings) into eBird with roughly 1/2 hour intervals. These checklists will be shared. Photographers are also encouraged to enter their sightings in iNaturalist. Sea Mckon runs an inaturalist.org project called “Offshore Wildlife”. Several participants have already entered their sightings. Photos can be submitted here.

Birds (total of all birds outside of Hyannis harbor)

Red-necked Phalarope – 69
Red Phalarope – 1 (identified later through photos)
Red/Red-necked Phalarope – 6
Pomarine Jaeger – 1
Parasitic Jaeger – 5 including 1 near adult dark morph.

Parasitic Jaegers

Long-tailed/Parasitic Jaeger – 1
jaeger sp. – 1
Laughing Gull – 3
Ring-billed Gull – 1
Herring Gull – 22
Great Black-backed Gull – 11
Black Tern – 2
Roseate Tern – 2
Common Tern – 36
sterna tern sp. – 3
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel – 1,987. Relatively high count offshore on shelf edge. Birds rafting in scattered flocks on calm ocean.
WHITE-FACED STORM-PETREL – 1. Thanks to Peter Flood for this clutch find. Fantastic views as we stayed on it for many minutes so that all got great looks of it! This rare species has now been recorded on the last 7 BBC Extreme pelagic trips and 9 out of the last 10!

Leach’s Storm-Petrel – 53 including one very close flyby over the Nantucket shoals.
Hydrobates sp. (formerly Oceandodroma sp.) – 1 One possible
Band-rumped reported by leader, but no photos.
Cory’s Shearwater – 28 (12 definitely borealis; no Scopoli’s (C. d. diomedea) suspects, although we’ve recorded that ssp. on past trips)
Great Shearwater – 719

Great Shearwater - 1

Sooty Shearwater – 72. Normally not common on this trip. This is the highest count.
Manx Shearwater – 22. Relatively high count for this trip.
AUDUBON’S SHEARWATER – 43. Nice numbers scattered along shelf edge. Molting adults and fresh juveniles noted.

Audubon's Shearwater - 4

black-and-white shearwater sp. – 1
shearwater sp. – 2
Northern Gannet – 3
Double-crested Cormorant – 42 including 2 seen well offshore on Nantucket shoals!
Osprey – 5
bird sp. – 1 (distant jaeger/tern)

Marine Mammals

Fin Whale – 1 plus two other large whale sp.
Minke Whale – 5
CUVIER’S BEAKED WHALE – 6 (!) Two pods of 3 each including incredible views of one very white backed individual presumed to be an older male in the first pod. These are very rare animals to see and this is the first time this species has been conclusive photographed on a BBC trip!

Cuvier's Beaked Whale

Pilot Whale (Short-finned/Long-finned) – 26. Hourly totals of 7, 12, and 7. Great views and experience.
Risso’s Dolphin – 73. Hourly totals of 20, 4, 25, 6, 18. Stunning views and experience.

Risso's Dolphin

Bottlenose Dolphin (offshore) – 73. Hourly totals of 16, 21, 1, 7, 7, 6, 15. Stunning views and experience.

Bottlenose Dolphin - Hydrographer Canyon, MA - August 7, 2021

Common Dolphin – 110. Hourly totals of 15, 25, 10, and 60. Typical (awesome) views and experience.

Common Dolphin

Gray Seal – 1. Waiting for a handout at the Helen H slip when we returned to port (another seal offshore on Nantucket Shoals was not identified to species but more likely a Harbor)

Fish

Mako Shark (Isurus sp.) – 1
SCALLOPED HAMMERHEAD SHARK – 4! Stunning close views of hammer in the glassy seas! First time positively identified to species level with photos.

Hammerhead Shark - Hydrographer Canyon, MA - August 7, 2021

TIGER SHARK – 3! Great views just under the surface. Even showing the tiger stripes!

Tiger Shark

Blue Shark – 1. On Nantucket Shoals
Swordfish – 2. Caught by mates overnight and shared with birders. Thanks Matt! But no Yellowfin Tuna.
Atlantic Bonito – A few moderately sized schools of small mackerel like fish breaking surface and jumping. Possibly this species. Oddspot Midget (flying fish) – A small number of flying fish seen. One was nicely captured by Joe Bourget as this species: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90519162
Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) – 2
CHILEAN DEVIL RAY (Mobula tarapacana) – 1. This sighting is similar to a couple of historic sightings on this trip of large brown rays that had remained unidentified. Thanks to marine biologist Sea McKeon, we think we’re finally figuring it out. They appear to be rays in the genus Mobula which (now) includes the giant manta ray (Mobula birostris). There are roughly 11 species in this genus. The giant manta ray can be identified by the shape of the cephalic fins (horns) which are long and perpendicular as well as their large size and back coloration. The remaining 10 species can be difficult to identify and are sometimes group-named as “devil rays”. Photographs for this individual have been tentatively identified on inaturalist.org as the brown colored Chilean Devil Ray (Mobula tarapacana). There are very few records this far north in the west Atlantic and this may be the first for Massachusetts. This species is known for their remarkable deep diving habits. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90576531 https://www.mantatrust.org/mobula-tarapacana https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/chilean-devil-rays-among-deepest-diving-animals-ocean-180951920/ https://europe.oceana.org/en/blog/meet-chilean-devil-ray
Sargassum Fish (Histrio histrio) – Noted in sargassum patch.

Invertebrates

Portuguese Man o’ war – Not a jelly fish, but a siphonophore. Normally an uncommon sighting, they were extremely common on this trip with a total of at least 29 counted! Incredible views in the calm waters showing tentacles and accompanying fish. At least 3 types of unidentified fish photographed with them.

Portuguese Man o' war - 2
Portuguese Man o' war - 1

Northern Shorftfin Squid (Illex illebcebrosus)–caught by the crew overnight and mostly used as bait for Swordfish. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90616882
Sargassum Swimming Crab (Portunus sayi)– Crab photographed in patch of sargassum: on August 07, 2021 at 09:40 PM by John Garrett

Monarch – Two or three over Nantucket shoals.

Notable algae

Sargassum seaweed – Scattered patches along shelf edge and up on shelf in warm water.

Brookline Bird Club “Extreme Pelagic” Trip Report2024-02-14T18:54:13-05:00
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