Block Canyon Trip

 

Yesterday I went on what was supposed to be a dedicated birding pelagic. Every year, my friend Carlos goes out on an all day pelagic trip to canyons out in the Gulf Stream. They charter a tuna boat to take them to see birds that you can not see from shore. Last year when I was doing a RI Big Year, I told him if anyone backs out I'd like to be the "first alternate". No one backed out and I was fine saving the money.

   Because of myself and interest from others, Carlos booked two trips this year. One for August 25 and the other for September 8th, The people going on the August trip are the same six (the boat only holds 6 people, hence it is called a six pack) that go every year. Unfortunately for them, they got blown out thanks to big waves. This really sucks because you do not sign up, spend all that money, wake up at 1:30 am, unless you really, really want to go.

   The marine forecast called for 3-5 foot waves and we thought we wouldn't be able to go also. A last minute decision was made that if we couldn't go out to the Gulf Stream we would do a more manageable trip to Cox Ledge. So I got up before people were getting home from bars to be at Snug Harbor at 2:30 am. We headed out and for three plus hours we cruised at 30 knots. We made it to Block Canyon one hundred miles from shore!

   Before I go on, I need to say, my big 600 mm camera lens was still in the shop. I had to take my small lens that goes to 300 mm. I mentally prepared myself to be a birder not a photographer. This was hard because I may never see these species again. But, I told myself seeing them was the important thing. I got lucky with a couple of species that came close to the boat and got some good photos. Cory's Shearwater was a bird that is fairly common that I didn't have a photo of. Luckily for all of us, Tim Metcalf has a good camera and he took some awesome photos. Every time a good bird was too far from the boat, we all looked at Tim's photos for the ID. But I digress...

Cory's Shearwater
Life photo

 To all of our surprise the Captain put some rods out telling us the lures on the water would "lure in birds". About an hour into cruising around looking for birds, a rod bends over. None of my five birding friends fish, so I got to catch a tuna.  It ended up being a decent size Albacore going 50-60 pounds. I also caught another Albacore that went over thirty. I can tell you for sure, I never need to catch a tuna over 60 pounds. I was sweating, all of my muscles from my legs to my lower arms tightened up. Tuna are strong! I also caught a mahi-mahi that went about 35 inches.

   As for the birds, we also had a great day. We saw all three species of Jaegers before noon. Pomarine Jaeger was a lifer for me. We got good looks at Manx, Great, and Cory's Shearwater. Cory's was a life photo. On our way in we saw a South Polar Skua which was the best bird of the day. It was my second lifer. We had dozens of Red-Necked Pharalopes on the water as we reached Block Island Sound.

 

Pilot Whales

Besides the birds we saw multiple marine mammals.On our way out we saw Bottled Nosed Dolphins and Pilot Whales. A Humpbacked Whale breached while we were birding but I was on the wrong side of the boat. Lastly, on the ride home we saw a huge pod of Atlantic White Sided Dolphins.

 

   When we got in, the Captain and mate steaked the tuna. We all went home with a couple Ziplock bags full of tuna. I have enough to make six meals after giving some away. I/we each could have taken more since there was over a hundred pounds onboard (live weight). We left enough for the Captain and mate to have a couple of meals.

   I can not stress enough how great of a day this was.  Each of us saw six species we had not seen yet this year. I got two lifers  (Pomarine Jaeger and South Polar Skua). We saw four species of marine mammals (Pilot Whale was a lifer). Plus I caught two new species, one of them (mahi-mahi) was on my bucket list. The other, the Albacore, is the largest fish I've ever caught. Not to mention we all went home with fish. So basically I got to go on

a tuna charter and a birding charter for the price of one.

South Polar Skua

Other species seen that were not year birds or lifers- Great Shearwater, Common Tern, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Wilson's Storm Petrels (everywhere)

Multiple photos below

Tim Metcalf got this photo of  a Manx Shearwater

Pomarine Jaeger

The top bird in the photo is a Parasitic Jaeger.
Its not much, but it is a life photo

These two photos (above and below) are of a Long-Tailed Jaeger.
Clearly the best bird photos I got today.

Tuna Steaks