Day 16, September 23, 2006. Russian listing. 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
(note that we crossed the International Dateline at 23:00 on September 21, 2006; hence the change in date)
Outside of the ABA-Area for the first time, it seemed that our birders were a tiny bit less frantic than back in Alaska. Okay, not all of them-others were on the deck at dawn working on their brand new Russia lists. Laysan Albatross, fulmars, Pomarine Jaegers, kittiwakes, Short-tailed Shearwaters, Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels, and a few others were the first additions for many of us. Sometime around 10:00 the rumor (actually, it was no rumor) began drifting around the boat that Pete Dunne and some lucky birders had seen a dark Pterodroma petrel from the bow. No dark Pterodroma was known from Alaska, but Murphy's is known from the west coast of the USA and had been reported from Russia on a VENT Bering Sea cruise back in July. We had looked for such birds carefully in Alaskan waters in the previous days, and their discovery just 150 miles west of the ABA-Area was both exciting and disappointing; we might have had a first state record (if a Murphy's).
The next bird was seen at about 12:45 p.m., when I was sitting down at lunch. Mottled Petrels had been seen by some recently and I brought my scope to lunch on the top deck (a great place to eat and seawatch at the same time). One of my tablemates spotted a Mottled in the wake, but when I got up to look at it my binoculars fell on a dark Pterodroma. After a moment of stunned silence I started shouting, "GET ON THIS BIRD!" The bird cooperatively made several close passes before drifting away, and as the field marks-hooded appearance, double white underwing flash, large size-began to sink in, I started to excitedly stammer, "I think it's a Solander's Petrel!" Although that bird drifted away, we quickly got into position and started spotting more, and this time we were ready with the cameras. Research and photo review confirmed my initial impression-these were Solander's Petrels, not Murphy's. Solander's Petrel is unknown from the ABA-Area (although there have been at least a couple of sight reports) and we were nothing short of shocked to find at least 9 (maybe as many as 18) within a half-day's sail of US waters. This was a life bird for almost everyone onboard, and the birds liked to follow in our wake, which provided for multiple, excellent close-range views as the birds moved towards us in the wake. This proved to be an incredibly exciting conclusion to a great two weeks of seabirding, but all of the leaders were wishing we'd had just a few more hours to try for this species in ABA-Area waters. Actually, Dave Wolf thought he had seen a distant Pterodroma just before Stalemate Bank the previous day.
The Solander's Petrels were far from the only highlight. While studying Solander's from 13:00 to 14:30, several Buller's Shearwaters were seen as well, a species we had seen only once on the previous portion of the boat trip. Perhaps both of these species were associated with patches of warmer waters, but for whatever reason, we didn't see either again until 18:30. At that point at least four more Solander's appeared, along with at least two more Buller's. Two Red-legged Kittiwakes were exciting as well, since the Commander Islands are their only Asian breeding area. Best of all was the last hour of seawatching (18:30-19:30) when several of us stood enjoying at least 75 Laysan Albatrosses and hundreds of fulmars behind the boat, spiced up by prolonged views of Solander's Petrels, regular Mottled Petrels sluicing through the wake, a few Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels, many Pomarine Jaegers including our only dark morph birds (one adult plus our only juvenile), a couple of Black-footed Albatrosses, side by side Sooty and Short-tailed shearwaters, and a couple of Buller's Shearwaters. We walked away from this seabird bonanza that several of us agreed was our favorite period of seawatching of the whole trip.
Today was also our grand finale, with several presentations and good-byes. Victor presented his "10 Best Birding Areas" speech and Larry Balch led a "Memories of Attu" presentation. To be sure, we are all sorry the trip is already over (and all sorry that we can't swing back to the other side of the dateline to photograph a Solander's in USA waters!).
Russian Pelagic waters, September 23, 2006:
Eurasian Wigeon – 1, eclipse plumaged, ph, flyby with pintail and Solander's Petrel (they actually flew together for a time!)
Northern Pintail – 1, ph, flyby with wigeon and Solander's Petrel (they actually flew together for a time!)
Laysan Albatross – 500, including some 70 at once off rear of boat at 19:00
Black-footed Albatross – 4
Northern Fulmar – 2,000, less than 1% light morph
Mottled Petrel – 25
Solander's Petrel – 18 (minimum count of 9, many following boat, so accurate counts difficult. Many photos, notes. Dark-hooded look, larger size (40% bigger than Mottled in direct comparison, double underwing flash, wedge-shaped tail, and largish bill all point to Solander's, which is known north to the Sea of Japan at least, although there are no confirmed ABA-Area records!)
Buller's Shearwater – 6, seen in two areas (4,2), always in areas with Solander's, possibly a warm water association
Short-tailed Shearwater – 400
Sooty Shearwater – 3, ph, conclusively identified late in day (19:00) with great close looks in area of seabird concentration. Many leaders felt they began to see this species again yesterday.
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel
Pacific Golden-Plover – 1 bright juv, circled boat while wee offshore, ph
"Kamchatka" Mew Gull – 1 HY, ph
Glaucous-winged Gull – 100
Black-legged Kittiwake – 1,000
Red-legged Kittiwake – 2 adults
Pomarine Jaeger – 45, including our only dark morph adult and our only juvenile (also a dark morph)
Tufted Puffin – 25, adults and SYs, essentially no other alcids at sea
Horned Puffin – 1, seen by one participant
Dall's porpoise
northern fur seal