Apologies for the delay in new postings but things have been busy with celebrating both of our 3rd Wedding anniversaries, and various activities at work and with studying.
While Chrystal continued the studying theme this last weekend, Rob took some time out and finally fulfilled an ambition and went to sea!
Driving down to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina (a new state 'tick' for me) on Friday with my DC birding friend Tom Grahame, we checked in to the motel in 98 degree heat.
The nest morning, Tom apparently was awake already but I was woken at around 4:20am by a consequence of that heat, a large thunderstorm. Not quite what I wanted to hear!
It was not the time that worried me, I had set the alarms for 4:30 in any case, but I worried how the weather system might effect our day's activities.
Just over an hour later we were at the Hatteras Marina waiting to board the Stormy Petrel II (see here for details). The boat is a powerful 61 foot sport fishing boat - come birder-carrying transport that was to be our 'home for the next 12 hours.
As the thunderstorms retreated south, we eventually slipped our moorings and headed out of the marina, through the narrow gap between Hatteras and Ocracoke Island and straight into some significant swell. Not being the world's greatest sailor, I wondered how I would bear up but I enjoyed the rough sea and spray (good idea to wear the rain gear, despite it getting warm at 6:00 at the marina). Some of the other 12 passengers didn't cope quite so well...
A couple of hours and 30 odd miles ESE out of Hatteras, Capt Patterson cut the engines from full power and the hunt began.
Apart from the occasional distant sport fishing boat, we had long left any sign of other Homo sapiens behind. Out here the only Sargassum weed floats past and shows that we are truly in the warm Gulf Stream. The Sargassum flows with the Gulf up from the Caribbean and shows that we are in suitable habitat for some of our target species.
It was a wonderfully remote feeling and, after traveling 7 odd hours on Friday and maybe 3 hours out to see that morning, I was feeling fairly well traveled.
However, all things are relative as our first visitors would prove. One of the 'tricks' of the trade is to slowly drip fish oil onto the surface of the sea. We had spotted only a couple of odd distant birds on the way out, but within minutes of the fish oil coming out we were being followed by the days first Wilson's Storm-Petrels. These little birds are remarkable in many ways but on the subject of travel, they put our rather sedentry lives to shame. 
These birds are small, around 7.25 inches and just over one (1!!) ounce in weight (around 1.2). They breed DEEP in the Southern Ocean's Summer months and spend their southern winters wondering the northern oceans. They are supposedly the commonest sea bird in the world but this trip gave me my first good, up-close-and-personal look
While we were in the warm waters we were often accompanied by between two and ten birds off the stern.
At one point, they were joined by the faster more direct flying Leach's Petrel but the 'best' bird of the day came when rather ironically one of the three Brits on board picked out a European Storm-Petrel, a bird very rare on the eastern side of the Atlantic.
Other birds seen included both Great(er) and Cory's Shearwater, both at close quarters. The former however apparently has a penchant for Sharks livers and adding some to the fish oil brought them down on the sea, noisily squabbling amongst them selves, sometime described as bleating like a 'manic lamb'. The Great Shearwater also breeds in the southern oceans but Cory's breeds in and near the Mediterranean Sea, both again looking our 400 odd mile trip fairly wimpy!
Another tropical species - Audubon's Shearwater - specializes on the small crabs and fish that feed around the floating Sargassum weed.
Brian Patterson's trips off of Hatteras have become one of the best ways to see a particularly pelagic (ocean going) family of birds. Today was not the very best day for the birds as there had been an east wind for a day or so and many had probably moved a few miles further out to sea. The various species of Pterodroma (or Gadfly) Petrels are much prized by birders, mainly
because there are so darn difficult to get to see! Despite the unfavorable weather conditions all was not lost on this front as we soon found the first - and in total eight - Black-capped Petrels. The one benefit of a windy day is that some of these birds, especially the Shearwaters and the Black-capped Petrels are the most magnificent flyers. On the way back to port, with the Boat at full speed, I watched a Great Shearwater overtake us with considerable ease. The Black-capped also have a wonderful roller-coaster like flight, rising high and then wheeling down towards the swell. It was a very sobering thought to realize that, even though we saw at least eight individuals, there is probably fewer than 1000 pairs left nesting mainly on Hispaniola. Haiti, which holds the majority of these, hardly has a great record for habitat and wildlife conservation :(
We headed back to shore and eventually got our land legs back (over dinner we were talking about how the world was still felt like it was rising and falling 15 feet or so). A leisurely drive back home on Sunday, including some birding at the very fine Pea Island NWR and we arriving, tired, sunburnt and amazed at the world just beyond the horizon.
It was a fine evening in front on Alexandria City Hall , bedecked with a huge Stars & Stripes for Flag Day.
