PORT O'CONNOR
PELAGIC TRIP REPORT II - July 23, 1994 Aboard the Chip XI
Report Transcribed from 1995 Texas Deepwater Pelagic Trips Newsletter
Copyrighted By: Dwight Peake and Mark Elwonger
Sooty Shearwater Recorded on July Pelagic Trip
Seas were rougher than usual as the Chip XI passed through the Big Jetties
at 5:00am. But participants quickly regained their equilibrium when the first
Leach's Storm-Petrels appeared around 10:30.
We were given quick looks of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins before the next mixed
flock of four storm-petrels showed up, these contained both Band-rumped and
Leach’s. At one point we could see the distinctive black smear down the center
of the rump of the Leach's. The advantage of a fast boat like the Chip XI is that
it can keep up with these swift, erratic wave-huggers, and give everyone pretty good looks.
We kept our radio headsets out of the spray on this trip, as most of the participants
stayed on "yellow alert" to make maximum use of our six hours in deep water.
Then, in mid-afternoon, a medium-sized dark shearwater materialized just 60 yards to
port! As it wheeled and zigged just barely above wavetops, we noted its all-dark
underneath with silvery pale wing-linings. A Sooty! For only the third live record
for the Texas Records Committee!
We ended the day with a total of five Leach's Storm-Petrels, ten identifiable
Band-rumped Storm-Petrels, four storm-petrel species, the single Sooty Shearwater,
a dark-backed sterna, Atlantic Spotted Dolphins and a possible sperm-whale breach.
