Our Annual Half-Day Pelagic with our partners, Cap’n Fish’s Cruises in Boothbay Harbor took place on a rather pleasant Sunday, October 4th, 2026. It was clear and calm in the harbor, with a little chop offshore on top of at most a 2-ft swell, it was about as good as we can ask for in the Gulf of Maine in October.
Thanks to the weather and last year’s exceptional outing, we hit our designated capacity (far short of the boat’s capacity to allow for plenty of room to move around) with 93 participants! I handled most of the naturalist duties as we focused on birds, with Alex Lamoreaux on checklist, Dan Nickerson on chum, and of course the exceptional crew of Captain Nate, Naturalist Amy, and Grilled Cheese Chef Valentin.
As we were slowly motoring through the harbor, a flock of 10 Green-winged Teal took off – out of place in the middle of the bay!
Our many visitors to the region – from as far away as California and Nevada today – enjoyed our “common” inshore birds, such as Common Eider and of course Black Guillemot.
We picked up a couple of Great Cormorants, and then as we headed offshore, we soon began to spot the occasional Wilson’s Storm-Petrel. We don’t see Wilson’s this late most falls, and especially not this many! In fact, we saw them throughout the trip, including pockets of small groups. Our tally of 128 for the trip was conservative, yet still a shocking number for the date. Not surprisingly, our best views came as we passed through a mile-long chum slick we had just laid down.
That chum slick worked perfectly today, affording us exceptionally close looks at the storm-petrels, but also great views of one of our target birds for an October departure: Northern Fulmar.
Prior to chumming over the area we call Saga, we encountered two large pods of dolphins, with dozens of Northern Gannets circling overhead and plunge-diving among them. The first pod of about 60 Atlantic White-sided Dolphins was followed by an even larger mixed pod of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins and Short-beaked Common Dolphins.
Northern Gannets were abundant today, with feeding frenzies amongst the dolphins, but plenty of scattered birds all trip to keep us on our toes.
Incredibly, we encountered 7 Atlantic Puffins throughout the day, a couple of adults, but mostly juveniles as would be expected this late. Like the storm-petrels, puffins this late are noteworthy, so 7 was exceptional.
Offshore passerines are always thrilling, as they’re like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get. We only had two today, a Yellow-rumped Warbler and an AMERICAN PIPIT
It was a great day offshore, but we were – as always – still hopeful as we continued on our clockwise loop and worked our way back towards Boothbay. Luke Seitz and I were talking about how we “needed” a jaeger today, and were surprised we did not encounter one. Then, about 45 minutes from the dock, I spotted a jaeger right in front of the bow!
It was so sudden, and right “there” I almost dismissed it as a young Laughing Gull, but then it passed right across the bow. We had a decent look at this subadult Parasitic Jaeger, but then Captain Nate said “Should we go after it? I think we should.” I supported that decision. And while we were already a little behind schedule, the chase was on!
We had another decent view as it passed by, but then we lost it as it easily pulled ahead of us. We were about to turn around when it reappeared, once again right in front of the boat, but this time in hot pursuit of a juvenile Ring-billed Gull (who was being reminded why Ring-billed Gulls don’t often venture this far offshore!)
Peeling away from the Ring-billed, it took a run at a couple of Bonaparte’s Gulls who were minding their business on the water, before it began to head for deeper waters. We followed it for a good 10 minutes, often alongside the boat, just above eye level, for all to see and enjoy.
While any day with a jaeger is a good day, this spectacular view was icing on the cake of another wildly successful mini-pelagic.
Here’s the full trip list:
*Dock/Land from harbor only
- 13 Canda Geese
- 3 Mallard
- 10 Green-winged Teal
- 169 Common Eider
- 90 Surf Scoters
- 9 White-winged Scoters
- 44 Black Scoters
- 25 Rock Pigeons*
- 2 RED-NECKED PHALAROPES
- 1 PARASITIC JAEGER
- 7 ATLANTIC PUFFIN
- 19 Black Guillemots
- 3 RAZORBILLS
- 8 Bonaparte’s Gulls
- 23 Laughing Gulls
- 14 Ring-billed Gulls
- 175 American Herring Gulls
- 89 Great Black-backed Gulls
- 16 Common Loons
- 128 WILSON’S STORM-PETRELS
- 10 NORTHERN FULMARS
- 4 Great Shearwater
- 1 MANX SHEARWATER (Alex L only, I believe)
- 133 Northern Gannets
- 2 Great Cormorants
- 349 Double-crested Cormorants
- 1 Great Blue Heron*
- 2 Turkey Vultures*
- 2 Bald Eagles
- 2 Peregrine Falcons
- 1 American Crow*
- 12 European Starlings*
- 1 American Pipit (~20 miles offshore)
- 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (~10 miles offshore)
