Posted by Paul Bithorn on April 18, 2001 at 17:50:08:
Sorry I have not had time to post this message sooner.
The TAS Dry Tortugas trip from April 12 to April 15 was a ripsnorting success. The drive down to the Keys included Spot-breasted and Northern Oriole, White-crowned Pigeon, Swallow-tailed Kite, Red-Whiskered Bulbul,White-winged, Yellow-chevroned and Monk Parakeets, Smooth-billed Ani, Gray Kingbird,Hill and Common Myna, Cuban Yellow Warbler,Reddish Egret,Roseate Spoonbill, et al.After lunch at Alabama Jacks we witnessed a 12 foot American Crocodile lunging into the water right in front of us at the Crodile National Wildlife Refuge on Card Sound Road. The very sociable Key Deer greeted us as we entered No Name Key. A Broad-winged Hawk flew into a nearby Gumbo Limbo. No Antillean Nighthawks at the Community College, so on to El Siboney's Cuban Restaurant in Key West. Several Tropical and Hatuey beers got us juiced up for our closely approaching departure.
The Yankee Freedom left Oceanside Marina on Stock Island at 12 midnight and while everybody went to bed but myself, Dick Cunningham and a young couple, I saw what appeared to be a ghost of a bird flying off of the stern about 12:30 p.m., while still in the harbor. Low and behold it turned out to be a Greater Shearwater, which hunted for food off the well lit port side of the boat for the next half hour. Like a seen from Jurassic Park, their was running and screaming as I awakened the whole boat to share in my good fortune. The bird had a much whiter rump than most of the literature depicts.
This bird was a harbinger of things to come in a very pelagic way. The weather was picture perfect for migrants to pass over the Tortugas and needless to say, land birds were very scarce. Two American Golden Plovers, Black-whiskerd Vireo, 12 species of warbler, Bobolink, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Sooty Tern,Brown Noddy, Masked & Brown Booby and the constantly kiting Magnificent Frigatebirds were the highlights of the birding around the Fort. A moat walk around the Fort included a 6 foot Nurse Shark, a 22" Spiny Lobster, Queen and Horse Conch, luminscent sea worms and many assorted tropical fish.
We left the Fort Sunday morning under calm weather conditions with eager anticipation. This afforded us the opportunity to head 28 miles out to Tail End Buoy, where Brown Boobies and the coveted Roseate and Bridled Terns were in abundance. We received a call from the Playmate and good friend,Larry Manfredi, that they had found a large weed line of Sargassum that had a large number of pelagics around it, including an immature Sabine's Gull. Rather than spread the news,in fear of dissappointing our group of rabid, I mean avid birders, in case we missed it, I kept it to myself.Within a half hour we were on the weedline. The first bird we encountered was the Sabine's Gull. Relief! Their was more running and screaming. The bird landed in the water allowing careful study and photo opportunities. Soon there were birds all around us.I heard someone yell shearwater and a Sooty glided right by me. Black Terns were sitting on flotsam embedded in the weedline. Roseate and Bridled Terns were all around us. I then spotted an immature light phase Pomarine Jaeger, which landed in the water allowing great looks and more photographs. We approached a pair of mating Loggerhead turtles,locked in a warm embrace, oblivious to our presence.The closer to Key West we got the more Northern Gannets we saw, in every plumage imaginable.
Smiles were in great abundance. We toasted our good fortune with a few Miller Lights totally satisfied. Our group will always have kindred remembrances of this bountiful birding experience. I had just witnessed the best pelagic birding of my life. Life is good........