The Red-eyed Birders and the White-tailed Tropicbird

Sunday May 19th

Today, Bob Pelkey and I,  participated in the pelagic trip sponsored by  the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet, Florida.  The event was lead by Michael Brothers, director of the Marine Science Center and is a fund raising function as well as a great opportunity to go out into the Atlantic after pelagic bird species we rarely see near land. Today's trip would take us across the Gulf Stream, to about 100 miles out, to the  deep water canyons in an area they called the tuna grounds.

The Pastime Princess

This was a long, long day with the boat, The Pastime Princess,  leaving the dock at  three in the morning.  Bob and I left Ft Myers at eight o'clock and arrived at the dock by midnight. Extra travel time had been allotted to avoid any possibility of missing the departure. With this spare time,  we attempted to grab a bit of sleep. 

It looked like we had forty-nine participants.  Some folks I was familiar with, including Bob Hargrove from North Ft Myers., but most  were not familiar faces. Like Bob's friend and fellow bird photographer Robert Doiron of New Brunswick, Canada.

The first leg of our trip really was challenging. Three hours of rain as we headed east  into the Atlantic. Ended up soaked to the skin as did Bob. Robert was lucky as he ended-up in a cozy spot in the cabin, which was already full before the rains started.. The misery would be abated hours later after clearing the weather, having our clothes dry off in the sun and passing a long bird-free stretch of ocean. We did have a few land birds check out the boat early-on in the darkness and rain. A small flock of Red-necked Phalorope - lifer approached twice as did a warbler, probably a blackpoll, and a thrush.

In the following hours we had some nice contacts with some good birds. They were not  numerous but a nice variety. The star was a fly-by of an adult White-tailed Tropicbird. Lifer!!


White-tailed Tropicbird
photo courtesy of  Michael Brothers

Other birds seen were Arctic Terns - Lifer, Sooty Terns, Bridled Terns, Audubon Shearwater - Lifer, a single Cory Shearwater,  Wilson's Storm-Petrels - Lifer,  several  Black-capped Petrels, a Brown Booby and a Pomarine Jaeger.  I see that other participants reported a sooty shearwater, red phalaropes, and leach's & band-rumped storm-petrels. We're checking Bob's photos to see if we captured these as well.

Black-capped Petrel
photo by Bob Pelkey

Other sightings included the mates landing a wahoo and had earlier hooked and lost a blue marlin. A leatherback turtle was sighted but few of us actually saw it. We missed on any pelagic dolphins or whales, but one interesting sight was seeing a large ray breech and leap three times.  Not sure what species it was. Maybe a manta or an eagle ray.

Arrived at the dock just before 9 pm. Very tired and feeling the effects of bouncing on the waves for eighteen hours in the rain and sun. Would I do it again.  Maybe next year.

Mr Brothers Birdbrain report-

49 stalwart adventurers joined us for a pelagic trip out of Ponce de Leon Inlet in Volusia County that started out at 3:00 a.m. in rain. Eventually the rain left us and we began to find a great assortment of pelagic birds.  At about 90 miles out, we began to find a lot of action, with Black-capped Petrel, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, Arctic Tern, then the show-stopper of a fabulous adult White-tailed Tropicbird!

Despite times of no bird activity, we found a good assortment of pelagic species:

Black-capped Petrel  12
Audubon's Shearwater  15
Cory's Shearwater  2
Sooty Shearwater  1
Wilson's Storm-Petrel  6
Leach's Storm-Petrel 1
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel  5
Brown Booby   1
Arctic Tern  5
Bridled Tern  8
Sooty Tern  74
Pomarine Jaeger  1
Laughing Gull  2
Red-necked Phalarope  12
Warbler sp.  1
Thrush sp. 1

Loggerhead Turtle 1
Leatherback Turtle 1
Sailfish  1
Wahoo  1

Special thanks to all of the great leaders that helped me out:
Mark Berney
Wes Biggs
Dave Goodwin
Sea McKeon
Mitchell Harris
Ed Kwater

John Murphy
Roberto Torres
Murray Gardler

The next trip will be in July.

Michael

Michael Brothers
Marine Science Center
Ponce Inlet, FL

Black-capped Petrel - Ponce Inlet Pelagic Trip

Back last Memorial Day weekend several of us had reservations for a pelagic trip out of Ponce Inlet sponsored by Michael Brothers and the Marine Science Center of New Smyrna Beach. As our caravan was crossing the state we received word that the trip had to be cancelled due to weather condition.  Tropical Storm Beryl was churning up the coast. It was a disappointment, but we managed to turn lemons into lemonade due turning south to the Florida Keys and some great birding.

This past weekend I was rescheduled to attend Michael Brothers' latest trip out into the Gulf Stream with hopes of adding a long list of expected pelagic species with the possiblity of some rarity to show up.

Saturday September 15th



A Black Tern see on Bio Lab Road

As it was a four hour plus drive, I used a day to make the drive and have time to visit Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Upon arrival I hurried to the Bio Lab Road first with the idea of locating a possible lingering Wilson's Phalarope that was being reported there. The lagoon side of the road was not very fruitful as the water was too deep for waders and shorebirds. The shoreline though offered looks at Sanderlings, Semipalmated Plovers, Black-belled Plovers, Least Sandpipers, Western Sandpipers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones, Double-crested Cormorants, Short-billed Dowitchers, several Stilt Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, a Black Tern a couple of Forster s Terns, many Laughing Gulls and the Wilson's Phalarope I was looking for. I actually missed the phalarope, but another fella, Lee Leatto, photographing the scene, put me onto the bird.

A look at Blackpoint Drive

Next I tried The Blackpoint Drive. Not much was here to see. Best wader was a Reddish Egret. Shorebirds were limited mostly to Sanderlings and Black-bellied Plovers. Came across a nice gathering of Laughing Gulls and terns. Had Caspian, Royal, Forster's and possible common and sandwich Terns.  lacking a scope made it difficult to discern some of the terns ID.

Sunday September 16th

Leatherback Turtle
Photo courtesy of Michael Brothers

The attendees for the pelagic trip needed to be at the dock at 3:30 am for a 4 am launch. We had fifty-three participants assembled with some folks having flown in from other states to attend the trip. Also met several folks I knew by name or reputation.  Like Wes Biggs, Scott Simons, Roberto Torres, Danny  Sauvageau,  John Mangold and Andy Kratter.  We boarded the Pastime Princess for our voyage.. Weather conditions were good, but the seas were a bit choppy for a while. Close into shore, as dawn was breaking we starting picking up a few birds. Cory's Shearwaters were the most commonly seen bird of the day. By the time we reached the weed line some 50 or so miles out we had Pomerine Jaegers, a single Greater Shearwater, Sooty Terns, Common Terns, Magnificent Frigetbirds and a number of land birds in migration including dozens of warblers, an Eastern Kingbird and several Great Blue Herons. At the tuna grounds the crew chummed the waters to try to lure in any storm-petrels. We surprisingly dipped on storm-petrels but did see as many as a dozen  Black-capped Petrels. On the trip heading back to port we could add Bridled Terns too.  Some folks got red-necked phalarope and Audubon shearwater, but I missed them. It was a good trip in that we did find some good birds, but expectations were high that we would manage a much longer list. Maybe next time. Other encounters included great views of a large pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins swimming with the boat and a gathering of 6 to 8 huge Leatherback Turtles. Sure wish my camera would have been working. It was a very long and sun-soaked trip. We arrived about 7:40 pm at the dock, were many weary and sun-burned birders departed  for home.

To see photos and stories from fellow birders on this trip, checked the hyperlinked sites above.

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
Photo courtesy of Michael Brothers

 

Monday, September 17th

After a very good night's sleep it was time to head for home. But I had a couple of stops in mind on the way. First was to stop at Joe Overstreet Road near Kissimmee State Park with idea of locating the Whooping Cranes that have taken up residence there.  They are a part of the Florida non-migrating flock that we hope will one day be self sufficient.

 

I arrived about 10:30 am and never did find the whoopers.  Lots of Sandhill Cranes and several flocks of shorebirds on the sod farms including Pectrol Sandpipers, Black-belled Plovers and some Yellowlegs. I did also come across several Wild Turkeys ( should be Osceola subspecies), a couple of early Palm Warblers and found a pair of Kestrels. I'm not sure if they are migrants or resident Southern American Kestrels. The most interesting event here was the cattle round-up. Several ranchers on horse back with thier cow-dogs rounded up a herd of cattle in one pasture and moved them down the road to another pasture. The dogs were very instrumental in getting the cattle to cooperate.

 

Later, at the Taylor Creek Water Management area I had a trio of Tree Swallows, a  Bank Swallow and several Barn Swallows. I made a point of heading into the Everglades Ag Area south of Belle Glade with the idea of checking the sod farms and fields around Brown's Farm Road for any shorebirds or swallows. Best I got were a lot of Mourning Doves, Starlings, a few Barn Swallows and a couple of Eastern Kingbirds. That pretty much ended my birding weekend.

Trip List - (86)

Mottled Duck, Wild Turkey, Pied-billed Grebe, Black-capped Petrel, Cory's Shearwater, Great Shearwater, Magnificent Frigatebird, Double-crested Cormorant, Anhinga, Brown Pelican, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron,  Reddish Egret, Cattle Egret, Green Heron, White Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Wood Stork,  Common Gallinule,  Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Cooper's Hawk, Bald Eagle, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Common Gallinule, Sandhill Crane, Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, Black-necked Stilt, Spotted Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs, Willet, Lesser Yellowlegs, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Wilson's Phalarope, Laughing Gull, Sooty Tern, Bridled Tern, Caspian Tern, Black Tern, Common Tern, Forster's Tern, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Black Skimmer, Pomarine Jaeger, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Common Ground-Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Crested Caracara, American Kestrel, Eastern Kingbird, Loggerhead Shrike, White-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Tree Swallow, Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow, Gray-blue Gnatcatcher, Northern Mockingbird, Starling,  Palm Warbler, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle and Boat-tailed Grackle