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Posted by Toe on 15:36:12 05/23/09
I had promised the family to take them out on the boat today, but my youngest daughter caught a virus and we went to plan B. My oldest daughter was excited about going, so I invited Larry with his son Phillip, and Trey to come along on a pelagic scouting/fishing trip. The weather on the way out was horrific. We went through the tip of a storm that passed south of us, and came really close to another to the north. Winds were 15-20 kts with higher gusts with seas a choppy 4'-6', and had one larger come through. Kudos to the kids that handled the weather like champs. No chumming!
We started off with a Blackfin Tuna off Pacific Light. We quickly started seeing Brown Booby, and one distant Audubon's Shearwater. A little deeper we got Bridled Terns, which was our most abundant bird of the day. We got quick but excellent looks at an awesome full adult light morph Pomarine Jaeger, then had a sub-adult Pomarine make many passes over our boat as if it was looking for food.
After searching out to 1,000 ft of water without much to show for it except for 2 Dolphin (the fish), we started heading back shallower. In 400 ft. of water we spotted a white bird heading south very fast just over the water. We chased it and noticed it landed. We got to within 75 ft. of an adult Red-billed Tropicbird. Last year we had a Red-billed off Miami on the same date, May 23rd. Must be a good date to chase Tropicbirds. We had great looks at the Tropicbird on the water then as it flew away. The time was close to noon and we wanted to get the kids back, so we started trolling our way back towards Pacific Light to head back in towards Caesar's Creek. We picked up Wilson's Storm-Petrel and two more dolphin on the way. Not a large number of birds, but I guess any trip with a Tropicbird is a good trip. The dolphin dinner will be very nice too.
Cheer's
The List:
Brown Booby (20+)
RED-BILLED TROPICBIRD
Audubon's Shearwater
Pomarine Jaeger (2)
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Bridled Tern (40)
Sooty Terns (5)
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