Hatteras Pelagic Number 2

 Today's pelagic trip was pretty much a duplicate of yesterday's trip.  I saw no new birds for the year.  However, today I took my camera and was able to get some pics of some of the birds we saw.  You can stop reading here and guess the identities of the birds shown, or just keep reading and let me tell you.  From the top we have: Cory's Shearwater, Audubon's Shearwater, and Wilson's Storm-Petrel.  I have some others that I will post tomorrow.  The day was beautiful, but the birds were few and far between.  The anomalously cool weather has kept the Gulf Stream further from shore.  To change the situation a weather system is needed.  Therein lies the rub.  If the weather is too rough, the boat won't go.  It looks as if tomorrow's winds will be shifting toward the SE, but the wind speed will remain relatively low.  By the way Ben Willis, son of Les Willis, was part of the crew on today's boat.
Tonight I ate dinner at Sonny's Restaurant across the street from my motel. The current owner is Sonny, son of the Sonny I knew when Paul DuMont and I used to run pelagic trips out of Hatteras in the 70's and 80's.  Sonny would agree to open the restaurant at 5:30am, but invariably that was the time the first staff member arrived, so the first breakfast was served by 6am, setting off a panic among the birding patrons, since the boat sailed at 6:30am.  Oh well!  It seems to have worked out somehow.  I chatted with the current Sonny and found that his father had died a few years ago.  I was aware that his father had a long painful battle with cancer, but hadn't heard about his death.  The food now being served at Sonny's is fine and you can find something on the menu that won't break the bank.  John will be arriving tomorrow night.  It will be great to have his companionship again.