Day 3, September 9, 2006. The Mother of all Pelagics. Sep 07—24, 2006
Posted by Marshall Iliff
Marshall Iliff
Marshall Iliff, a lifelong nature lover, began birding at age 11 after attending a National Wildlife Federation Camp in the mountains of North Carolina. He attended VENT...Related Trips
Coffee was available by 6:30, and by 6:31 some intrepid passengers and leaders were already on deck looking for birds in the half light. Seas were substantial and the deck was pitching and rolling enough that viewing was difficult. The skies were gray and overcast, and the light drizzle ended early in the morning giving us clear viewing conditions. As the day wore on the seas settled down nicely and made for an excellent day of pelagic birding. Our position was just off Resurrection Bay and some of us glimpsed the Chiswell Islands, large bird colonies that our two Alaska tours visit each year on the Seward/Kenai Fjords portion of our tours. Being near the Chiswells certainly contributed to the healthy numbers of alcids, and we saw numerous family groups of murres and both species of puffins.
In the first few hours there were hundreds of Northern Fulmars (various color morphs) and Common Murres, plus dozens of Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Horned and Tufted puffins, and Pomarine Jaegers. The jaegers were especially enjoyable, since many passed quite close to the ship and the birds provided a range of plumages to challenge even the leaders. We also recorded a handful of Parasitic Jaegers, a few Sooty Shearwaters, a few Short-tailed Shearwaters, and a couple each of Parakeet Auklet, Cassin's Auklet, Ancient Murrelet, and Red Phalarope.
The most bizarre sightings were two migrating landbirds that found us. A single sparrow, which the leaders agreed was a Savannah, made several approaches in our wake and flew up the starboard side, but ultimately peeled off towards land. Even stranger, at 7:11 Barry Zimmer spotted a shorebird approaching in our wake and the leaders soon chorused "SNIPE!" The Wilson's Snipe, clearly caught out of habitat in its southward migration, circled our vessel for some 10 minutes before finally disappearing. It seemed to want to land on the ship, and someone suggested that since the hot tub was still empty, perhaps we might fill it with mud and reeds to create a marsh for snipe and rails. Peregrine Falcon is another bird many people do not expect to see offshore, but interestingly, this species regularly migrates over water. Some evidence that the species is opportunistic during migration was that one of the three Peregrines we saw this morning was carrying a Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel as prey—confirmed by photos.
At midday we passed Cook Inlet, where a vessel could turn north and head to Anchorage. Several currents converged on the falling tide at Cook Inlet and the tidal rips there were teeming with life. The real bonanza began at about 12:30, when Joe Hanfman of Maryland spotted a distant whale blow. It quickly became obvious that the spout was from a distant male Orca (killer whale), and concerted watching eventually revealed that there were several pods in the area. The closer we got the more we realized that we had arrived at a real hot spot—there were no fewer than 50 Orcas, separated into 6 to7 pods, within view of the ship. Some of the Orcas were clearly feeding, and slick areas of fish oil at the surface attracted some 700 Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels. Hundreds of Northern Fulmars and Black-legged Kittiwakes would form periodic feeding frenzies, wheeling and dipping to the surface to glean the scraps of the Orcas' meal. As we slowly crept through the tidal rips, flocks of Red-necked Phalaropes would flush ahead of the ship and careful scrutiny revealed a few Red Phalaropes. One or two Arctic Terns among the swarms proved to be the only ones seen all day—most Arctics have already left Alaska for their long trip to their wintering grounds in the southern hemisphere.
From noon to about dusk we navigated the 150-mile Shelikof Strait, which is the channel between the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island. Although Kodiak was many miles distant to our south, it was impressive to get a sense of just how large that island was, and a bit odd to be on a "pelagic trip" with land on both sides. The remainder of the day's watching produced many of the same species, and the die-hards continued to get good looks at such oceanic species as Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel, Pomarine Jaeger, Northern Fulmar, kittiwakes, and a variety of alcids. Parakeet Auklets were more common in the afternoon watch, and of the shearwaters we identified, Sooty Shearwaters seemed to give way to Short-tailed. As we move west, Short-tailed will increasingly become the dominant dark shearwater. One participant had a Leach's Storm-Petrel before dark. We are all looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.