There some truth to that, but there is also is a widespread
misconception about ocean off North Carolina. There is actually a
fairly big window of occurence for many species which occur here in very
low numbers. And there is considerable variation from year to year
depending on a number of factors across the ocean in addition to the
local winds and ocean current conditions. Birders and pelagic trips are
more numerous here in late May and early June. Late June, July, August,
and September are all good months to look for most of the "spring
rarities" here. If we ran daily trips here for two weeks in August, I
think it would open people's eyes. As it is, that is not going to
happen because there is not enough word of mouth advertising generated
by our usual four to six trips in August w/ a skeleton crew of
participants. We run more trips here in two weeks in spring than we do
for the next three months because people will go then but not a much
later on. The same sort of thing happens on the U.S. West Coast, but in
the fall. There are some great trips offered in August off Northern
California, but getting participants before September can be a
formidable challenge.
If birders around the world would take advantage of the present
opportunities for going on pelagic trips instead of putting it off for
sometimes years, so as to schedule at the "peak season", we would all be
better off. We can learn a lot more about pelagic seabirds and their
movements with more uniform coverage year round.
Brian Patteson
Hatteras, NC
br...@patteson.com
http://www.seabirding.com/
CR Shearwaters | |
From: | George L. Armistead (georgea...@hotmail.com) |
Sent: | Sun 7/13/08 9:51 PM |
To: | ebi...@gmail.com; bmact...@islandnet.com |
Hey Guys,
I don't have a ton of experience w/ Christmas Shearwater, having seen but one off of Honolulu a couple of years ago but I have seen a lot of Wedge-tails, Sooties and Short-tails. I agree with Steve that these birds look like Christmas Shearwaters. Structurally, and geographically that is the only thing that makes sense to me. They look sort of compact with a relatively broad-based wing, and the head profile looks rather sloping w/ sort of a longish bill given the birds's size. Everything seems to fit for Christmas to me. I wonder if they are more common out there than folks realize. That's what I love about seabirding... still so many frontiers.
Very best,
-George
George L. Armistead
Philadelphia, PA
georgea...@hotmail.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabirder/
Field Guides, Inc.
Birding Tours Worldwide
http://www.fieldguides.com/