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Posted by Toe on 15:45:30 08/01/09
Trying to kill time until the migrants arrive, I ventured out this morning with Larry and Phillip Manfredi, Trey Mitchell, and Paul Bithorn (I know, quite a colorful bunch). With the recent shift to SE winds of 10-15 kts, I was hoping that some pelagics would be found close to the Gulfstream's western edge. We left Crandon early and by 7:45 were at Fowey Rocks, after a stop for some live baits. At Fowey we found 12 Brown Booby, with several adults. From there we made our way out deeper, but didn't get too far before getting a double-header of Bonito. In about 300 feet we had two quick Cory's Shearwaters, and I thought about staying here in this area, in fact I even talked about it. But, I changed my mind and decided to head deeper. I should have stayed shallow, since out deep the birds were pretty sparse. We had the occasional Sooty Terns in 2's and 3's, and a few Bridled, two more Cory's Shearwater, two Brown Booby, and 4 distant Phalaropes that looked like Red-necked. We did manage to catch a 20 lb. dolphin, and lost a smaller one at the boat.
Not a huge number of birds, but it was still a fun day. This was my first early August trip, so it all goes into my records. Thanks for the adventurous crew that braved the August heat.
The list:
Brown Booby (14)
Cory's Shearwater (4)
Red-necked Phalarope (4)
Sooty Tern (25-30)
Bridled Tern (~6-8)
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