On Sept 20, 2015, 93 enthusiastic birders went to sea on WildResearch’s fith pelagic seabird fundraiser. Details from the trip and the official trip list follows below. Photos from the trip can be viewed here!

For the week leading up to the pelagic, each new weather report predicted high winds and heavy precipitation. There is a limit to what the Francis Barkley can safely withstand, but because we had birders traveling from all over western Canada, (and one from Quebec!), we proceeded as planned. Saturday morning’s pre-pelagic birding trip to Amphidrite Point was quite wet, but 15 WildResearch members stuck it out for two hours, and were rewarded with a handful of Surfbirds, Black Turnstones, and one Wandering Tattler. After the field trip we learned that Wayne Diakow had found a Northern Mockingbird in downtown Ucluelet and a Pacific Golden-Plover at Chesterman’s Beach. These rare bird reports help put some wind in our sails for the pelagic trip.

Sunday morning we let the dock at 7am sharp and enjoyed the calm waters of the Ucluelet harbor. However, once we left the harbor, we motored head on into angry seas, fog, and rain. Within a couple kilometers from shore, good numbers of Sooty Shearwaters started turning up. The next few hours was rough going with on and off rain showers, but what kept us going was large flocks of Northern Fulmars circling the ship and small numbers of Buller’s Shearwaters zipping by. Within an hour, the Sooty Shearwaters became quite scarce and were replaced by unusually large numbers of Pink-footed Shearwaters and more Northern Fulmars. On most of our pelagic trips, we often see small flocks of Sabine’s Gulls that pass by the ship quite quickly, and are often not seen by everyone on board. This was the first trip where Sabine’s Gulls were coming in behind the ship and going after the chum. Everyone had a chance to see at least one Sabine’s Gull this year! A similar situation is typical of the Jaegers – they tend to come in quickly and then disappear. This trip we had a very co-operative Polmarine Jaeger off the stern that everyone could study in detail. We had Black-footed Albatross putting on a good show for participants as they came into the ship to feed on chum. Fog tends to disorient migrating songbirds, and we had one Savannah Sparrow and one other unidentified Sparrow follow the ship as it made its way through the fog. An exceptionally large sunfish was spotted loafing on the port. The sea calmed down considerably and the return trip was relatively comfortable.

Many people are to thank for organizing the pelagic trip logistics. Big thanks to Azim Shariff and Jay Brogan for chumming in the birds, Paul Levesque and Dan Froehlich for spotting and calling out birds, Roger Clapham for helping load the chum, Mikaela Davis for caring for the seasick, and the Captain and Crew of the MV Francis Barkley, for keeping us safe and going the extra mile to help us spot great seabirds. Thanks also to everyone that participated in WildResearch’s Fall 2015 Pelagic Trip fundraiser.

And thanks again to all our participants! Looking forward to seeing you out on our next trip.

Birds seen well offshore:

• Greater White-fronted Goose – 400
• Cackling Goose – 400
• Canada Goose – 1
• Brant – 200
• Northern Pintail – 200
• American Wigeon – 60
• Green-winged Teal – 2
• Surf Scoter – 80
• Red-throated Loon – 5
• Pacific Loon – 3
• Common Loon – 3
• Black-footed Albatross – 10
• Northern Fulmar – 120
• Sooty Shearwater – 100+
• Pink-footed Shearwater – 200+
• Buller’s Shearwater – 4
• Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel – 3
• Peregrine Falcon – 1
• Red-necked Phalarope – 20
• California Gull – 40
• Herring Gull – 5
• Glaucous-winged Gull – 5
• Sabine’s Gull – 20
• Arctic Tern – 2
• Tern species – 1
• South Polar Skua – 2
• Pomarine Jaeger – 4
• Parasitic Jaeger – 2
• Common Murre – 30
• Pigeon Guillemot – 3
• Ancient Murrelet – 2
• Cassin’s Auklet – 12-15
• Rhinoceros Auklet – 10
• Savannah Sparrow – 1
• Goose species – 1000
• Unknown Duck Species – 200
• Unknown Sparrow – 1

Birds seen in the harbor:

• Harlequin Duck – 2
• Pelagic Cormorant – 15
• Brandt’s Cormorant – 4
• Double-crested Cormorant – 2
• Great Blue Heron – 1
• Bald Eagles – 1
• Black Oystercatcher – 10
• Wandering Tattler – 1
• Black Turnstone – 4
• Surfbirds – 8
• Glaucous-winged Gull – 20
• Heermann’s Gull – 3
• Common Murre – 10
• Rhinoceros Auklet – 20
• Belted Kingfisher – 4
• Northwestern Crow – 5