Posted by Toe on May 09, 2016 at 02:26:30
Headed out yesterday with a great crew: John, Hans, Miriam, Smith, Shane, and Jack. I was so worried about the NW winds overnight that I almost cancelled the trip, since those winds not only push the currents and the birds far offshore, but also build the seas up in the Gulfstream. The forecast called for the winds to shift to the NE by noon and lay down a bit, so I decided to go anyway. As we made our way out, we started seeing flocks of passerines flying low over the water trying to avoid the strong headwinds. We could make out mostly Blackpoolls, but there were also Common Yellowthroats, many Bobolinks, several flocks of peeps, and one warbler that I bet was a Connecticut. Offshore things started off slow, but as the winds shifted we could see a nice edge forming and the schools of skipjack tuna began to scare baitfish to the surface. We soon started seeing flock of birds feeding over the schools of skipjack. The flocks consisted mostly of Bridled Terns and Audubon's Shearwaters, but there were also a few Sooty Terns, a flock of Brown Booby, a couple of Black Terns, 2 or 3 Common Terns, and a Pomarine Jaeger that started chasing the other birds until if forced an Audubon's Shearwater to drop its catch. We also saw two Common Nighthawks fly through one of the flocks. Our biggest surprise was when we saw a group of Bridled Terns harassing a large, brown bird. We were directly NW of the bird and as it flew toward the boat, we noticed to our amazement that it was a Barn Owl. It was heading for land like all the other passerines. I didn't know Barn Owls migrated. Or do they? I never thought I'd say "There's a Barn Owl." "Where?" "Behind the Bridled Terns!" I'm planning another trip for May 15th. As we get more into spring and summer, the variety should start improving, especially as we get more winds out of the E and SE. Contact me if interested at fornax123@bellsouth.net. Thanks to the crew who braved the conditions to make this trip possible. The list: Audubon's Shearwater ~75 Brown Booby, 15 Northern Gannet, 3 heading north Magnificent Frigatebird, over 30, one group had 15-20 Pomarine Jaeger Sooty Tern ~10 Bridled Tern, 250+ Black Tern, 2 Common Tern, 3