Seabird & Whale Tales Tale’s Excursion
Sunday, June 11th, 2005
Report from Kathleen S. Anderson
Participants on an all-day pelagic trip aboard the Captain John boat Tales of the Sea sponsored by the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance on Sunday, June 11, found themselves surrounded by whales, dolphins, shearwaters and storm-petrels. Unlike the mainland, it was even cool.
Leaving Plymouth, the boat rounded Race Point and cruised down the outside of the Cape until reaching a “feeding frenzy” off Orleans.
Despite the very low numbers of birds, diversity was good and several interesting sightings left everyone satisfied. Similarly, the windy conditions resulted in lots of interesting surface behavior such as spinning head breaching, lobtailing, flipper slapping, etc. from a number of different Humpback Whales.
Totals for the trip, some of them guesstimates, according to the naturalists aboard - Wayne Petersen, David Clapp and John Jahoda.
Shorebirds and Seabirds
- 8 Common Loons
- 1 Red-throated Loon - in breeding plumage
- ca. 10 Double-crested Cormorants
- 1 Brant
- 1 Piping Plover
- 1 Least Tern
- “several” Common Terns
- 600 Sooty Shearwaters
- 600 Greater Shearwaters
- 4 Manx Shearwaters
- 1000 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels
- 30 Northern Gannets
- 1 or 2 Parasitic Jaegers
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- Uncounted Great Black-backed, Herring and Laughing Gulls
Whales:
- 8 Finback Whales
- 30 Humpback Whales
- 7 Minke Whales
Other miscellaneous sightings:
- 1 Basking Shark
- 250-300 White-sided Dolphins
All of the sightings illustrate that in 10 hours a pelagic trip can get to locations impossible to access in 4 or 5 hours. It was a great trip.
