| Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus (9). Stellwagen Bank, MA. (Images taken using Canon Powershot A-95 through Leica 8x42 binoculars). |
Traveled down from Amherst to join a scheduled Whale Watching trip out of Gloucester after good numbers of pelagic species had been consistently reported in Massachusetts waters over the last two weeks. Eventually we elected to join the Yankee Fleet which headed out into the Stellwagen Bank at 08:30 hours. We hadn’t been at sea for too long before we noted our first Wilson’s Storm-Petrels and from then on we were kept pretty busy with seabirds for the whole trip. We (Brian Kane, Susannah Lerman and I) recorded the following notables over four hours from about 08:50 hours; Greater Shearwater - 600+ (several decent sized rafts). Sooty Shearwater - 60+, mostly scattered amongst the Greaters. Manx Shearwater - 9, many of which gave good views. Wilson’s Storm-Petrel - 600+ (absolute minimum). Short-billed Dowitcher - 13 (8, 5), moving south at sea. Parasitic Jaeger - 1 (light, probably sub-adult). Pomarine Jaeger - 2 (immatures, probably first-summers). Flushed by the boat on the return journey. Bonaparte’s Gull - 1 (1st summer) as we left the harbor. Common Tern - 30+, no other terns that we could find. |
 The bird on the right is shown in slightly more detail below and on this page.    I was surprised how brown this bird looked including dusky markings all along on the flanks. Not the sharply contrasting bird that I usually expect to see in Manx Shearwater!    A darker, more contrasty Manx Shearwater (rear center) with a small raft of Greater Shearwaters. |