PORT O'CONNOR
PELAGIC TRIP REPORT I - May 28, 1994 Aboard the Chip XI
Report Transcribed from 1995 Texas Deepwater Pelagic Trips Newsletter
Copyrighted By: Dwight Peake and Mark Elwonger
First Port O'Connor Pelagic Trip Smashes Records
The first deep-water Texas birding trip accessible to the general birding public
departed from the Hustler Marine Dock promptly at 4:15 AM on May 28, 1994 and sailed
into ornithological history. Crossing the 50 mile Continental Shelf was unproductive
but just as a lynch mob formed around the trip leaders, the day's first Storm-Petrels
flushed ahead of the boat at 9:30 AM. As we continued to waters as deep as 3,000 feet,
we were entertained with an almost constant parade of unusual sea creatures and rare
birds. A Bridled Tern sitting on nearby debris, a large school of Yellow-finned Tuna,
a pod of dolphins breaching to join us and ride our bow wave, a Whale Shark passing
right along the boat! The time spent in deep water passed too quickly as we went from
one spectacle to the next. Nick Jackson, already with a Texas bird list over 500, added
five state birds! Al Valentine added number 737 to his life list with Band-rumped Storm-Petrel.
Our trip list, which included a Northern Waterthrush and a Bobolink (which took a half-hour
break on the boat), also included five species previously documented fewer than 20 times
(2 less than ten times, 1 less than 5 times) in Texas: Bridled Tern (18),
Audubon's Shearwater (16), Greater Shearwater, and Leach's (4) and Band-rumped Storm-Petrel (26)!
Our sightings included two Whale Sharks (the world's largest fish) and four species of marine mammals.
We returned to Port O'Connor after a beautiful Gulf sunset on time, tired, and elated for
participating in the best Gulf of Mexico Pelagic trip ever!
Species Seen:
(Black-capped Petrel – 1) confirmed later by photographs taken by Phyllis Frank.
The photos circulated among experts on the East Coast who positively identified
it as a Black-capped Petrel (Pterodroma hasitata) instead of a Greater Shearwater
as originally thought.
