Calling all pelagic, birding, and adventure enthusiasts! It's time to shake off those winter blues. Water temps are heating up and we have less than one month 'til we board our spring overnight pelagic trip to the Hudson Canyon and surrounding environs.
Not only is a trip out to the deep the best way to see a suite of species which you virtually never see from land, but each trip is guaranteed to be a unique experience, and you absolutely never know what you'll see next. For many of us who go out often, the adrenaline and uncertainty is enough, regardless of what birds we see. That said, these trips have an outstanding track record of producing great wildlife across the board. Trips in this seasonal window offer a wide variety of species, and as an example, our last spring voyage tallied SIX South Polar Skuas, Long-tailed Jaegers and Pomarine Jaegers, Manx, Cory's, Great, Sooty and Audubon's Shearwaters, Wilson's and Leach's Storm-Petrels, and multiple Arctic Terns. Throw in a breaching Basking Shark, Risso's Dolphins, Portuguese Man O' War, and some awesome Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish), and you can understand our excitement when it comes to getting offshore. Once again, I will remind everyone that one of the very first NY pelagic trips, on almost this exact date, many years ago, tallied Yellow-nosed Albatross. All three Jaegers, both pelagic Phalaropes (Red and Red-necked), 5 or more species of Shearwaters, multiple species of Storm-Petrels, and lingering wintering birds are all legitimate possibilities. Also, since it's the deep, almost any pelagic bird that occurs in the Atlantic is possible, even if it hasn't yet occurred here! If that's not enough to get you're blood flowing, take a look at some of these photos (or don't look if you don't want to be guaranteed to succumb to the temptation of coming): https://www.flickr.com/photos/29840397@N08/albums/72157653910596566 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/103866258@N08/albums/72157653758717610 Our boat is the Brooklyn VI out of Sheepshead Bay. At 110ft long with a 26ft beam she is more stable than many of the charter boats sailing in NY/NJ waters. We depart Sunday evening May 20th at 8pm and return Monday evening at roughly 6pm. **We still need a few more participants in order to have enough to sail. If you have any questions or would like to register please see the links below.* Trip details and cost can be found here: http://paulagics.com/trips (scroll down to May 20/21 trip) *To register:http://paulagics.com/trips/register <http://paulagics.com/trips/register>* As always we are super excited to continue investigating the status and distribution of New York's pelagic species in the deep, and we hope to see many of you aboard! Doug Gochfeld for See Life Paulagics -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
