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Posted by Toe on 09:36:53 12/15/09
In Reply to: Fun times at the Biscayne NP CBC (list later) posted by Elsa
We had the real pleasure of going out with Max Tritt of BNP on the pelagic leg of the CBC. Our team consited of Terry Baltimore, Alexis Brooks, John Schwarz, David Simpson, Max Tritt (he ran the boat), and myself. The boat is a really nice Boston Whaler with a lot of room for only 27' in length.
After crossing the bay in not time, we stopped on Adams Key for the only land birding of our circle. Here we found Great-crested Flycatcher, N. Parula, Palm Warbler, Catbirds, and Gnatcatchers
We headed out Caesar's Creek to begin the pelagic portion of our count, and quickly started adding up the Cormorants. We hit Pacific Light (not literally, since Max's boat handling skills are superb) and found it to be loaded with Brown Booby. We counted 25, including some awesome adults. There were also 9 Brown Pelicans, several Royal Terns, an adult Herring Gull, and a juvenile Magnificent Frigatebird perched on the structure. As we were getting our first looks at all the birds on Pacific Light, 3 adult Pomarine Jaegers flew right over the boat heading south about 100 feet over the water. Awesome sight!
Our plan was to get to the park boundary in about 60 feet of water and slowly work our way north to the end of the circle near Triumph Reef. Just off Pacific over the outer reef, we found 9 more Brown Booby feeding on a school of baitfish. That brought our total to 34, adding more proof to the theory that you usually see them in even numbers.
As we worked our way slowly north, we had steady streams of Northern Gannets, mostly adults, heading south. I think our total was 76, but I'll let Elsa give the final count on those. We also had small groups of Laughing Gulls heading south, but had a bried moment of panic as an adult Parasitic Jaeger came by flying fast to the south. This one was a little farther out than the Pomarines, but I think most on the boat got to see it. We also saw 4-5 Frigatebirds between Pacific and Triumph.
The day was beautiful, despite the oncoming rainstorm that Max skillfully kept us out of, we had a great group, and we got some good birds for the CBC. After getting back to shore, we met up with some of the other groups, and I even did a littel birding with Judd Patterson and Andy Bankert, who tried desperately to find me a year bird so they wouldn't have to hear me whyne about all the birds I don't see down here......
Here's our list of birds offshore, but I'll let Elsa add anything I forgot:
Brown Booby (34)
Northern Gannet (76)
Pomarine Jaeger (3)
Parasitic Jaeger
Magnificent Frigatebird (5)
Herring Gull (3)
Laughing Gull (~90?)
Royal Tern (~20)
Red-breasted Merganser (5)
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