A pair of boobies off Hatteras

This weekend was Natalia's first time officially spotting on a pelagic.  While she performed admirably for a couple days out in the Gulf Stream aboard the Stormy Petrel II, a sexier pair of boobies ended up stealing the show. 

You never know what to expect when rolling the dice on a pelagic trip, or hell, in birding anywhere, but on Friday's trip we encountered something unprecedented.  We first spotted a distant sulid--a young Brown Booby, which uncooperatively picked up and flew away from the boat. Not 15 minutes later as we were creeping up on a flock of sitting shearwaters I heard Brian's voice over the radio urging us to look at the "big white bird in the middle."

Masked Booby with Cory's Shearwaters

This booby was far more friendly than its Brown cousin and seemed content to preen with its shearwater friends while we ogled from close range.

Masked Booby

It looked like it was molting into its first set of adult or near-adult feathers, giving it a bit of a mud-spattered look. 

Masked Booby

The mud-spattered thoughts were too offensive and off it flew.

Masked Booby

With two boobies around and the hot, still weather, it was feeling like the Caribbean out there, so not surprising that Bridled Terns also put in a good showing.

Bridled Tern

Otherwise, the weekend provided the usual summer pelagic species found off Hatteras.

Great Shearwaters

Cory's Shearwater (with Masked Booby)

A north wind turned the ocean into a roller coaster on Saturday which brought a lot more Black-capped Petrels in close to the boat.

I rate myself a pretty lousy sea bird photographer and this pic captures my lack of skill, while at the same time the Black-capped Petrel essence.  They're so fast it's all I can do to keep one in frame!

Black-capped Petrel - has places to go

The Saturday trip also offered some good looks at Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, which we missed entirely on Friday.

Thanks to Brian Patteson and Kate Sutherland for organizing the trips and making it a fun weekend.

Andrea effects at the Outer Banks

The rough seas from the passage of Tropical Storm Andrea cancelled Saturday's pelagic trip, but the storm had left the outer banks littered with interesting birds.

A scruffy-looking Common Eider showed up at Oregon Inlet.  This is a pretty rare bird in North Carolina in the dead of winter, so one in June is especially odd.

Common Eider

It even wattled up on the beach near the coast guard station...I had never seen one stand before!

Common Eider

Eventually it drifted out the inlet with the strong outgoing tide looking a bit storm-weary.

The most buzz came from the 3 to 5 Magnificent Frigatebirds that were seen along the outer banks.  One cooperative pair hovered around the Chicamicomico (Rodanthe) water tower for at least 7 hours.

Magnificent Frigatebird

These birds were in the vicinity of Kitty Hawk Kites and a few dozen kiteboarders were zooming around the sound taking advantage of the high winds.  Perhaps the kites made the frigatebirds feel at home?

Magnificent Frigatebirds

With the recent storm and the wind out of the south I was sure we would get a tropicbird on Sunday's pelagic trip.  Turns out I was wrong...we got something even better.  On our way back in an immature Brown Booby cruised past the boat!

The Booby (and getting to hear Brian Patteson shout "BROWN BOOBY!" over the PA) made up for our failure to find any rare deep sea birds. Normally I would blame the spotting crew (famous big year birders Jeff Lemons and Ali Iyoob, and myself), but it just seemed like there wasn't a ton of pelagic bird activity this day, with a modest showing by the usually-abundant Wilson's Storm-Petrels.  Maybe the storm blew all the birds away?  We did find the expected Corey's, Great and Audubon's Shearwaters; Black-capped Petrels; Ali got Band-rumped Storm-Petrel for his big year list; and a "friendly" Pomarine Jaeger followed us for at least an hour.  So really, even a relatively slow day off Hatteras is still a pretty great day!

Pomarine Jaeger

I found it interesting that all the odd storm-blown birds--the eider, frigatebirds and booby--were all immature/1st-year birds.  Perhaps adults are better at avoiding becoming displaced by severe weather?

Big thanks Brian for having me along to spot again!  For more details on Sunday's trip check out the the Seabirding blog.