The Z Bird Birding Blog » pelagics

At sea, June 1, Islands of Four Mountains to Dutch Harbor — The End of the Journey

Zugunruhe — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:53:49 +0000

There wasn’t as much action today as on previous days. There were relatively few albatrosses (Laysan and Black-footed) and alcids. But we intercepted a stream of thousands of Short-tailed Shearwaters off and on throughout the day. Kirk spotted a probable Mottled Petrel, but it was too far away for a positive ID. Between Umnak and Unalaska islands, a few Red-legged Kittiwakes flew overhead. One of them circled the boat a few times before continuing on its way. Then as we approached Dutch Harbor, we found a few small flocks of Whiskered Auklets.

The trip is now finished. Check back in a few days for a photo gallery…and of course keep an eye on the website or e-mail me for info if you’re interested in coming along next year.

At Sea, May 31, Amlia Island to Amukta Pass

Zugunruhe — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:56:11 +0000

Breakfast was interrupted by Rich shouting down from the pilot house that an adult Short-tailed Albatross was flying past us. No one was able to get up top in time to see it, but it got everyone to finish breakfast quickly. Soon everyone was in the pilot house or on deck looking for another one, but we didn’t see any at first.

There was a small fishing boat on the horizon, so we switched course to see if there were any birds around it. There wasn’t, but in the course of a radio conversation, that boat’s captain said we weren’t in a good area for Short-taileds. We knew we were in a good area — we were approaching Seguam Pass, a hotspot for them — so it was a nice ‘I told you so’ when we spotted the next Short-tailed within sight of that boat.

Over the next several hours, we encountered more Short-taileds. As we passed through the west side of Seguam Pass, the Short-tailed count approached 10.

Some may have been spotted more than once, but we probably had at least 7. Ages varied from all brown juveniles to older subadults.

The west side of Seguam Pass was a huge tidal rip and birds were everywhere. There were thousands and thousands of Fulmars, hundreds of Laysan Albatrosses, more than a handful of Black-footed Albatross, and various alcids, but only one Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel. The waters calmed as we reached the east side, and there were fewer birds.

We then passed Seguam Island and entered Amukta Pass. This pass is deeper than Seguam Pass. We had fewer birds here, but there were still lots of fulmars and now many Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels.

Tomorrow should be the final day of the trip.

At sea, Adak to Tagalax, May 30

Zugunruhe — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:40:34 +0000

We spent a good part of the day at Adak today, dropping off some of the Attu crew and picking up a couple of people for the run to Dutch Harbor. We went through Little Tanaga Strait again and had the usual five auklet species, but there hasn’t been much else of note.

At Sea, Amchitka to Tanaga, May 29

Zugunruhe — Sun, 30 May 2010 17:36:39 +0000

Until early afternoon, I thought I was going to have to write about how uneventful today was. There were lots of Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels and Laysan Albatrosses and alcids, but nothing all that remarkable. But then Kirk spotted a Mottled Petrel flying past on the starboard side, but he was the only one to see it. I always choose the wrong side of the boat, so of course, I was on the port side at the time.

A little while later, a small pod of Orca along with many albatrosses were ahead of us. As we approached, an adult Short-tailed Albatross suddenly appeared on our port side (and yes, I was sitting on the starboard side). It flew ahead of us but then sat on the water. It then started flying again and we lost it, but then I started chumming. Soon we had about 20 Laysans and one Black-footed behind the boat. Then Rich spotted the Short-tailed coming into the ship’s wake. Some of us had all three species in one binocular field of view. The Short-tailed never came close enough to grab some chum, but it did follow the boat for about 10 minutes. It was certainly the bird of the day.

At Sea, Buldir to Kiska, May 28

Zugunruhe — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:24:05 +0000

This was a day of rest. Everyone was recovering from all the hiking and biking on Attu, so there wasn’t much effort put into looking for seabirds. We did see all of the expected auklet species, many Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels, and there was at least one Laysan Albatross in sight for most of the day. The best bird was a Red-legged Kittiwake southeast of Buldir. We ended the day in Kiska Harbor looking at some of the remains of the Japanese occupation of the island during World War II.

Cruising to Attu

Zugunruhe — Wed, 26 May 2010 03:35:20 +0000

Sorry for not keeping up to date. As expected, we had some problems with e-mail. Everything seems to be up and running now. I had been writing daily reports, but they were lost so I’ll combine days and just give a short wrap-up of what’s been going on.

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.

At Sea, May 18

Zugunruhe — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:02:36 +0000

Our ship has finally come in. We headed out to bird this morning after breakfast, and the first thing we saw was the Puk-uk on the horizon. So we are now on the way to Attu.

The seabirding has been fairly good. On the southend of Little Tanaga Strait, we saw thousands of Whiskered Auklets. We also saw the other three _Aethia_ auklets to complete the grandslam. There was also a few possible Cassin’s Auklets, but we didn’t get confirmation on that.

We began to pick up Laysan Albatrosses along the south side of Kagalaska Island. At times 4 or more were flying around the boat. Then approaching Adak Strait, the number of tubenoses, particularly Fulmars began to build. It was dinner time, so most of us were down below when Kirk Zufelt started shouting something unintellegible. We wondered if it was an emergency or a good bird and decided he was yelling too loud for it to be an emergency. It had to be a good bird, and it was. Kirk saw a near-adult Short-tailed Albatross pass near the back end of the boat. By the time the rest of us got up there, it was pretty far behind the boat. It then passed us very far off the port side. Identifiable looks, but the rest of us are hoping for something better.

All in all a good day. Even Mike “Toochie” Toochin got 2 lifers.