Up at 5:00am and out the door to the marina where we got a breakfast sandwich and coffee and boarded the Stormy Petrel II. Once outside the inlet, we took a SSE course. After a couple of hours we saw our first pelagic bird, a Sooty Tern. web photo) By the end of the trip we would see many more Sooty Terns plus Bridled Terns, Black-capped Petrels, Wilson's Storm-Petrel, Audubon's Shearwater, Cory's Shearwaters, a few Great Shearwaters and phalaropes. The non-pelagic birds seen were a Barn Swallow, a small flock of Sanderlings, and a calling Short-billed Dowitcher. Marine mammals included Atlantic Spotted Dolphin, Bottlenosed Dolphin, and two Gervais Beaked-Whales. The water was very warm at 85F, but the sea was not rough. No new birds. Maybe tomorrow.
Good luck tomorrow . . . and by the way, I think you are a trouper, not a trooper . . . Renee
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