Yup, I’m leading off a pelagic trip report with a photo of a Song Sparrow. It’s a sign of things to come…but it was 28 miles offshore!

The thing about pelagic birding, especially on the Eastern Seaboard, is that it can be very hit or miss.  This year was our 4^th Fall Mini-Pelagic with our partners Cap’n Fish’s Cruises out of Boothbay Harbor. Last year’s trip was pretty good, 2021 was outstanding, and 2020, had well, Leach’s Storm-Petrels, so that counts as great! 

This year, well, this one is going to have to be counted as a miss. 

Granted, I love the thrill and challenge of seeing and identifying passerines at sea. It’s like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get. And they’re always a fun addition to a pelagic birding tour.  But let’s be honest, that’s not what we packed the boat for.  More species of sparrows than seabirds is not why we go on pelagic birding tours!

There’s no other way around it – it was dead out there. Kelsey, the boat’s Naturalist, reported it has been very quiet for both birds and marine mammals recently, and she was not kidding.

But hey, we were offshore on a boat! It sure beats most other things we could have been doing instead. Plus, the waves were not very bad (2-3 feet is pretty generous), the winds were much lighter than forecast, and other than a few sprinkles, we didn’t hit any rain until we returned to the outer harbor. The light winds, the gray sky, and the minimally choppy waters were all perfect for pelagic bird finding. But alas.

We can’t be accused of not trying though!  Captain Steve covered nearly 70 miles, and we hit a total of 5 hotspots, including perennial favorites like Murray Hole and Mistaken Ground.  The only real action we had were gulls and Northern Gannets, which we spent some time with at Bantam Ledge on the way to and from the deeper waters. Diving gannets are always a good show.  And with several visitors from well beyond New England, we saved a few minutes to enjoy the nearshore birds around Cuckhold’s Ledge Light on the way back, with 3 Great Cormorants and all three scoters scattered among 750-1000 Common Eider.

More Northern Flickers than jaegers, more species of warblers than alcids, but we tried!  And days like this only make those great days feel even better! We’ll get ‘em next year.

Here’s the trip list:

• 12 Canada Geese
• 3 Mallards
• 1006 Common Eider
• 46 Surf Scoters

• 8 White-winged Scoters
• 9 Black Scoters
• 3 Long-tailed Ducks
• 40 Rock Pigeons
• 1 POMARINE JAEGER

• 7 Black Guillemots
• 1 Black-legged Kittiwake (independently photo’d by two people)
• 2 Bonaparte’s Gulls
• 2 Laughing Gulls
• 2 Ring-billed Gulls
• 137 Herring Gulls
• 81 Great Black-backed Gulls
• 11 Red-throated Loons
• 30 Common Loons

• 58 Northern Gannets

• 3 Great Cormorants

• 165 Double-crested Cormorants
• 4 Great Blue Herons
• 1 Northern Harrier (crossing outer harbor)
• 1 Cooper’s Hawk (at dock)
• 2 Northern Flickers
• 2 Merlin (outer harbor)
• 4 American Crows (harbor)
• 4 American Pipits
• 6 Pine Siskins
• 2 White-throated Sparrows
• 3 Savannah Sparrows
• 1 Song Sparrow
• 1 Palm Warbler
• 5 Yellow-rumped Warblers
• 23 unidentified passerines (including a flock of 14 that were probably Pine Siskins).

*All of the passerines were offshore, including several sparrows 28 miles offshore!

Marine Mammals:

• 1 distant breaching Minke Whale seen by only a handful
• scattered Harbor Seals