The 100-foot Pastime Princess will carry up to 110 birders offshore for a full day of birdwatching during the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival 2010. Photo courtesy of SCBWF.
Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com
Pelagic birds are species that are usually not found close to land. There are some birds that the average person will never see because these birds spend almost their entire lives at sea: Gannets, Shearwaters, Jaegers and Petrels, for example. If you’re not a birder, you’ve probably never even heard of the names of these amazing open ocean wanderers.
A juvenile Northern Gannet. These birds make spectacular plunge-dives and may hit the water at 70 miles per hour. Photo courtesy of Tom Dunkerton.
If you’d like the chance to spend a full day offshore from New Smyrna Beach with 100 or so other enthusiastic birders to search for pelagic bird species, the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival is offering you the opportunity.
The 100-foot Pastime Princess will leave out of Ponce Inlet to look for pelagic birds in an area of the Atlantic Ocean above an undersea formation known as “The Steeples.” This is a location with underwater cliffs and seamounts that create upwellings and current edges, particularly along the western edge of the Gulf Stream. These productive waters attract many species of pelagic birds. Targeted species on this trip will include:
- Northern Gannet
- Northern FUlmar
- Greater Manx
- Cory’s Shearwater
- Audubon’s Shearwater
- Pomarine
- Parasitic Jaeger
- Long-tailed Jaeger
- Wilson’s, Leach’s, and Band-rumped Storm Petrel
- Sooty and Bridles Terns
- Black-legged Kittiwake
- Masked and Brown Booby
- Red and Red-necked Phalarope
- Sabine’s Gull
Other possibilities include making a rare sighting of a Razorbill or Dovekie.
A White-tailed Tropicbird spotted on last year's pelagic birding trip. Note the characteristic tail streamer. Photo courtesy of Tom Dunkerton.
A Pomarine Jaeger seen over the Atlantic Ocean nests on the Arctic tundra and winters over the open ocean. Photo courtesy of Tom Dunkerton.
Open ocean dolphins cavorting near the boat. Dolphins are always a joy to watch. Photo courtesy of Tom Dunkerton.
The photos above contributed by Tom Dunkerton were taken on last year’s pelagic trip. Tom notes that last year the ocean was very calm. During the trip they observed Northern Gannets, Lesser Black-Backed Gulls, Audubon’s Shearwaters, Red Phalaropes, Pomarine Jaegers, Bridled Terns, Bottlenose Dolphins, and Atlantic Spotted Dolphins.
Here are lists provided by 3 participants in last year’s pelagic trip of the birds they saw.
Trip leaders this year will include Jessie Barry, Wes Biggs, Michael Brothers, Jim Danzenbaker, Tom Dunkerton, Mike Freiberg, Murray Gardler, Dave Goodwin, David Hartgrove, Alvaro Jaramillo, Kenn Kaufman, Kim Kaufman, Paul Lehman, Bruce Mactavish, Michael O’Brien, Martin Reid, Luis Segura, David Simpson, Clay Taylor, Laurilee Thompson, Christopher Wood and Louise Zemaitis.
Food is available for purchase on the boat or you can bring a small cooler with your lunch. Bring full rain gear and wear waterproof shoes. Expect wind and salt-spray.
Date: February 1, 2010
Weather Back-up day: February 2, 2010
Time: 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For more information and to register visit the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival web site. Advance registration is required.
If you’d like an entertaining, well-written, personal account of one person’s experience on last year’s pelagic trip, visit Sharon Stiteler’s Bird Chick Blog. She has some great photos too.
FTC Disclosure of Material Connections: I receive compensation from the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival for writing about the 2010 Festival.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I read the account of the 2010 trip Feb 1 or Feb 2010. Is there a schedule yet for 2011? Thank you.
Ron Nelson
Hi Ron, I don’t think there is a schedule for the 2011 trip yet, although I know they are already working on it. The dates for the 2011 Festival are January 26 through January 31, 2011. You can get contact information for the festival at http://www.nbbd.com/fly/