Sunday October 9th
Yesterday, I had been invited to do a pelagic boat trip out onto the Gulf of Mexico. Dave McQuaid asked me if I was interested in going out to look for pelagic birds off the Florida coast at Fort Myers. It was an offer I couldn't decline. Glad I went too.
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| Common Terns attracted to a bait fish boil |
Just the three of us today, Edwin Willke, an excellent birder and photographer, Dave and myself. Dave will frequently venture out on the Gulf, on his boat, McLagic, to seek out pelagic species off our coast. There is not very much data, so Dave is attempting to catalogue where and when to find these birds just as the fisherman document were to find fish.
We headed out about 7 am, traveled about 150 miles over eight hours in one to two foot swells. Got good looks at Blue-winged Teal, Cory's Shearwater, Greater Shearwater, Red-necked Phalaropes, Magnificent Frigatebirds and several migrating flocks warblers, including Palm, Tennessee, Northern Parulas, American Redstarts, Black-and-Whites and other species. Another migrating flock included Little Blue Herons with Cattle Egrets. No dolphins today, but there were some flying fish.
About noon we came upon a huge concentration of terns feeding on bait fish boils, with predator fish, probable bonito, pushing the bait balls to the surface. They were mostly Common Terns, Edwin counted 160, plus a few Black and Forster's Terns. But we spotted a Sabine's Gull, Lifer, among the feeding terns. Awesome. Probably the first recorded sighting for Lee County. Tried to pull an arctic tern out the crowd, but couldn't do it.
Good, Good trip. Thanks Dave and Tammy so much!!
Dave and Edwin got some great photographs. I did not. So follow the links to our eBird lists to see their great photo evidence. The trip was divided into several hourly segments.
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