PORT O'CONNOR
PELAGIC September 5, 1998 Aboard the Chip XI
Subject: Red-billed Tropicbird!
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 13:47:26 -0400
From: Dwight Peake
The apparently last public Saturday Texas pelagic trip for
the foreseeable future was run out of Port O'Connor on
September 5. I had feared through most of the past month
that there were not enough adventuresome ecotourists to make
the trip possible and then Hurricane Earl passing by our area
a couple of days prior to the trip had me fretting that the
trip would not go, but enough hardy souls registered and the
seas calmed rapidly after Earl.
Earl apparently moved the edge of our target eddy pretty much
past the limits of the range of our trip and the best area we
could reach was on the other side of what has proven to be a
very oligotophic (low in biological activity, otherwise known
as a "there aren't any pelagic birds in the Gulf of Mexico"
area) water mass. The seas were calm and we were fortunately
able to make good speed. We came upon a line of rain showers
and right on the leading edge of the rain, Petra Hockey
shouted "Big White Bird"-that
was enough to get my pulse racing, but the distinctive flight
which indicated a tropicbird got me absolutely frenzied! We
watched the bird for several minutes and finally a Texas
tropicbird gave us good looks! It flew back and forth in
front of us and we even got to see it make a feeding plunge
dive. My video is not NGS quality, but it does show the long
black markings on the outer upper primaries, a reddish bill,
worn stubby ,elongated central tail feathers, and most importantly, the
black eye patch extending around the back of the head!
We had lots of leisurely looks at Band-rumped Storm-Petrels and
3 Masked Boobies sat on the water less than 100 feet from the boat
at different times during the day. Everyone got great looks at
Frigatebirds overhead also.
The pelagic tern numbers were low and the ones we did find were
not cooperative. The lack of any areas with fish schools probably
accounts for the poor pelagic tern showing.
The marine mammal numbers were also lower than usual with only a
few Bottlenosed dolphins bow riding, but being able to watch a
basking Sperm whale makes up for the low numbers for me!
King Neptune kept the seas calm throughout the day until two
hours out of port and, just at dusk, an unexpected storm line
hit us with 40 knot winds. Fortunately, the trusty Chip XI proved
its seaworthiness again in the 6-8 foot seas which resulted! It
was a bit more of an adventure than I had hoped for. The Chip XI
is a sturdy boat and Gary Geissel is an excellent Captain-I greatly
appreciate his skills at finding and following birds and
having gotten us safely to and from deep water during the past
five summers!
I, however, would like to take pelagic trips in a bit more comfort
than is possible on the Chip XI. Texas birders have the opportunity
to make these offshore birding trips on a much more comfortable craft.
The M/V Fling and M/V Spree are much larger boats and have large,
comfortable cabins with air conditioning, individual sleeping berths,
and lots of food to eat. The next trip is scheduled to depart at
9pm on September 20 and to return by 5am on the 22nd. Due to several
late cancellations, we need several more people to
sign-up. Unfortunately, if we don't get enough people to register
for this trip, these trips will not be available next year. So if
you have been thinking about going on a Texas pelagic trip but
have heard that the Port O'Connor trips are too rough for your
tastes, please sign up for this trip-it may be your last chance
for a Texas pelagic trip (remember, no boats make public trips
to water deep enough to regularly see pelagic birds
and mammals except these that we birders charter).
