We were at sea on May 19 and most of May 20. On May 19, we saw most of the expected pelagic species but nothing out of the ordinary (though we did see 5 species of auklets, including Whiskered). The highlight of the day came at dusk. We stopped to watch the massive Least and Crested Auklet colony at Sirius Point at Kiska. The sky was covered with thousands and thousands of birds. You can actually smell them — they have a citrus scent we could smell from the boat.
We woke up on May 20 near Buldir. We soon saw our first of eight Red-legged Kittiwakes, and again we saw five species of auklets. Later in the day we saw many Fork-tailed and Leach’s Storm-Petrels. A few Mottled Petrels were spotted throughout the afternoon. The oddest sighting of the day was a male Brambling that was going to land on the stern rail but then saw four of us, including my two co-leaders Rich “The MacInator” MacIntosh and Mike “Toocher” Toochin, sitting on lawn chairs.
Later, we stopped at Ingestrom Rocks and soon had over 40 Laysan Albatrosses swimming around the back of the boat. There was also a fly-by Black-footed. A Slaty-backed Gull was seen south of Shemya, and then we finally arrived at Attu and set anchor in Casco Cove.