Sorry for the tardy post. Things have been a bit hectic lately...
The following is Mike Fritz's report on the August 8 pelagic out of Belmar, NJ to the Hudson Canyon. We headed offshore via the Glory Hole and onward to the Hudson Canyon, getting 80 plus miles offshore at the furthest point. The Glory Hole had a sizable fleet of fishing boats and we had several Cory's Shearwaters and Greater Shearwaters nearby along with a steady stream of Wilson's Storm-Petrels, but nothing else so we continued offshore. We were looking for an area of 78 degree water in the Hudson that was there on Friday, but the water stayed around 69 degrees and never got above 72 degrees, which is very cold for August. The strong NW wind on Fri/Sat probably pushed the warm water offshore. We got to the tip of the Hudson, put out oil and chum, and attracted a few Audubon's Shearwaters, more Greaters, and Wilson's Storm-Petrels very close to the boat. We had Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins, Risso's Dolphins, as well as Common Dolphins as we headed out further into the Hudson. We had close looks at a Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish) and we had a "small" (maybe 12-14 foot) Basking Shark swim around the boat several times. We chummed for a while at our furthest point and had nothing new, so we started to work back in. On the way in, a few people on the bow got to enjoy the sight of a large whale breaching, but he wouldn't repeat the show for the rest of us. On the way back through the Glory Hole we had many flocks of feeding Wilson's Storm-petrels and ended the day with almost 600 total. Trip Totals: Wilson's Storm Petrel - 596 Cory's Shearwater - 18 Greater Shearwater - 19 Audubon's Shearwater - 8 Northern Gannet - 2 Barn Swallow - 1 "Offshore" Bottlenose Dolphin - 20 Common Dolphin - 35 Risso's Dolphin - 8 Large Whale sp - 2 White Marlin - 1 Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish) - 1 Basking Shark - 1 -PAG Paul A. Guris See Life Paulagics P.O. Box 161 Green Lane, PA 18054 www.paulagics.com 215-234-6805 i...@paulagics.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Temporary archive: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
