Posted by Paul Bithorn on May 07, 2001 at 17:57:38:
As luck would have it, I had to pick up up my Chevy Venturer van that was being serviced in Pembroke Pines late Friday afternoon. Only a 20 minute drive from John U. Lloyd State Park, I decided to venture over to the park to try and relocate the Bahama Mockingbird and possibly do a little pelagic birding, what with all of the fanfare up the coast. After an hour's worth of searching the hammock for the Mocker but to no avail, at 5:00 p.m. I proceeded to extract my trusty, paid for, 20-year old Bausch & Lomb Discoverer and found a nice spot to plop my rear end on a dune to begin scanning the ocean, inspired by the spirit of Johnnie Johnson and the tenacity of Howard Langridge. The winds were out of the ENE clipping along at 15 to 20 knots with 3 to 5 foot seas. Two juvenile Northern Gannets bobbed off the waters edge within 100 yards. At least a dozen other juveniles speared into the breakers as far south as the Dania Pier, home to the memorable winter of 1984/1985 Black-legged Kittiwake. Magnificent Frigatebird, Royal Terns and Laughing Gulls periodically came into view.Like a tennis fan, my scope constantly scanned back and forth until finally a storm-petrel with its' bright, white rump came into view about 300 yards offshore. I immediately looked at the tail.... it was deeply forked! It
glided with wings on a vertical plane parallel with the waves until spotting food, then it would pluck it and glide on. The buffy carpals stood out in stark contrast to the dark wink tips. The bird banked back and forth and then gradually dissappeared, oblivious to my great contentment. Life is good.............