Seabird & Whale Tales Tale’s Excursion
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
Combined report from Wayne Petersen and Krill Carson
The annual New England Basking Shark Project - NEBShark September pelagic trip onboard the Tales of the Sea out of Plymouth on Sunday enjoyed mixed success as a result of difficult sea and wind conditions along with a continuing dearth of seabirds on Stellwagen Bank. The original plan was to survey the backside of Cape Cod, south to Chatham, but a stiff N/NE wind and building seas ultimately limited our survey efforts to Stellwagen Bank. Sightings began on the SW corner of the bank and continued as we worked our way north to the NW corner. Over the course of the day, we covered much of the bank and the waters included in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
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 - spinning head breaching, lobtailing, flipper slapping, etc. from a number of different Humpback Whales.
Shorebirds and Seabirds
- Common Loon - 2
- Brant – 1 Plymouth Beach
- Scoter sp. – 12
- Common Loon – 1
- Greater Shearwater – 2
- Sooty Shearwater – 1
- Manx Shearwater – 1
- Wilson’s Storm-Petrel - 12
- Northern Gannet – 12
- Double-crested Cormorant – 2 offshore
- Osprey – 1 Plymouth
- Black-bellied Plover – several Plymouth
- Semipalmated Plover – several Plymouth
- Piping Plover – 1 Plymouth Beach
- Red-necked Phalarope – 30
- Long-tailed Jaeger – 2-3 juveniles photographed
- Laughing Gull – many on Plymouth Beach
- Common Tern - 800+
- Ring-billed Gull – many Plymouth
- Herring Gull – only small numbers offshore
- Great Black-backed Gull – only small numbers offshore
- Sabine’s Gull – 2 adults
- Roseate Tern/Common Tern – the number of terns resting on Plymouth Beach and
feeding in the surrounding waters could easily have exceeded 15,000.
A truly extraordinary concentration. - Swallow sp. – 1 offshore
- Red-breasted Nuthatch – 2 offshore
- Yellow-rumped Warbler – 1 offshore
Whales:
- Humpback Whale - 18
includes Pepper and calf, Nile and calf, Rune and calf,
Liner, Alpha, Pele, Milkweed, Tear, Cajun and Apex - Minke Whale - 9
Other miscellaneous sightings:
- Ocean Sunfish Mola mola - 1
- Monarch butterfly - several seen migrating offshore
