Seabird & Whale Tales Tale’s Excursion
Sunday, June 10th, 2007
Report Krill Carson
On Sunday, June 10th, 2007 passengers from MA, RI, NY, NH, PA, CT and AR joined the New 
England Coastal Wildlife Alliance – NECWA, for an all day pelagic trip aboard the Tails of the Sea luxury commercial whale watching vessel owned and operated by Captain John Boats. On the microphone were seabird experts Wayne Petersen and David Clapp from Mass Audubon and whale scientist Dr. John Jahoda from Bridgewater State College (BSC).
Once we cleared Plymouth Harbor, we headed east across Cape Cod Bay on our way to Race Point and points south. From the Race, we traveled down the backside of the Cape towards the BC buoy located 15 miles east of Chatham. Many seabirds and whales were sighted as we continued south towards Chatham. Just as we approached the BC buoy, fog rolled in reducing our sighting ability and making it impossible for us to locate the large concentration of wildlife that had been observed in that area just a few days prior. So, we decided to head back up the shipping channel towards the BE buoy located on the west side of Stellwagen Bank. After a few hours on marine wildlife viewing on the bank, we returned to Plymouth around 6 P.M.
Sea conditions were a bit rough off Chatham due to increasing northeast winds. However, by midday things quieted down a bit and the ride back was fairly smooth.
Highlights of the trip included an exceptional number of fulmars, especially for the late date. When we stopped to chum, we were surprised to have 35 fulmars sitting on the water behind the boat.
We also had close views of Crystal breaching next to the boat. Crystal is a male humpback whale born to Salt in 1980. Near the end of the trip, Roswell and her first known calf came over to the boat and stayed with us for quite some time.
Concentrations of birds were found off Truro - feeding gannets, gulls, and some shearwaters, east of Chatham - large numbers of Sooty Shearwaters, Fulmars, and Wilson’s Storm-Petrels,
and on the southwestern edge of Stellwagen Bank - lots of gannets, modest numbers of shearwaters and storm-petrels.
Seabirds
Totals do not include Plymouth Harbor or Cape Cod Bay
- Red-throated Loon - 1
- Common Loon – 3
- Northern Fulmar - 125
- Greater Shearwater - 450
- Sooty Shearwater – 1500
- Manx Shearwater – 3
- Wilson’s Storm-Petrel - 4000
- Leach’s Storm-Petrel - 2
- Northern Gannet – 500
- Pomarine Jaeger - 1
- Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1
- Black-legged Kittiwake - 2
- Unidentified large alcid - 2
Whales:
- Humpback Whale - 18
including W, Crystal, Salt, Division, Photon calf, Roswell & calf, Lavalier & calf - Finback Whales - 9 including Loon
- Minke Whales - 6
- Gray Seal - 1
I would like to thank Wayne Petersen and Blair Nikula for providing the seabird information contained in this sighting list. I would also like to thank Joanne Jarzobski - Center for Coastal Studies and Jenn Tackaberry - Whale Center of New England, for providing the humpback whale identifications.
If you are interested in contributing one or two images to NECWA’s slide show that will soon be posted on our web site, then please send to Krill.
We would love to include your best wildlife or people shot taken during this trip. Also, NECWA would love to hear back from their SAWT passengers so send any comments or suggestions to Krill who will then distribute them to the group.
Don’t forget, our next Seabird & Whale Tales excursion is scheduled for Sunday, September 9th. Check the NECWA web site in a week or so for the new registration form.
