birding; a way of life

Trans-Atlantic cruise to the East coast of the States and Canada Sept 18th-Oct 10th

The highlights continued;

4. White-faced Petrel. Two birds approximately 200 nautical miles east of Cape Cod. September 23rd.
I knew that this species has been recorded as rare visitor by birders on pelagic trips in the Gulf stream from the Carolinas up to Massahusetts, but the chances of getting them from a fast moving cruise ship without stopping and throwing some chum overboard would seem slim. Mind you I had managed it once before on a cruise in July 2013 offshore from Lanzarote, by doing a bit of homework and then some intense scanning in the area of the Banco de la Concepcion (A relatively recently identified hot spot for this and other charismatic seabirds).
With this in mind I kept looking although even for an obsessive sea birder like myself keeping alert can be a real challenge, there had been occasional small groups of Leach's and Wilsons Petrels but very big gaps without any thing. Then suddenly as I scanned there was a White-faced slipping through a trough! Just to confirm I wasn't stringing a phalarope or something it paused and began pushing off the water on long spindley legs-the kangaroo feeding action! About 10 mins later I had another one.
It goes to show what is possible from cruise ships, but you do need to spend alot of time looking and have alot of patience.

5. Skuas in general. Five species including the hoped for South Polar.

Any trip where the default species is Pomarine Skua has got be a good one, great views of this species were had, including some cracking adults with spoons flying alongside the ship. No big flocks of Poms noted but small numbers almost daily, the species was particularly prominent on the return journey on Oct 7th-8th between the Newfoundland Grand Banks and the Mid Atlantic Ridge (Max of 21 on 8th). There were small numbers of Arctic Skuas and Great Skuas. Long-tails were surprisingly difficult, I managed a Juv off New England on the way over on Sept 23rd and then there was a nice day on the return journey on Oct 8th over the Mid Atlantic ridge in association with a general concentration of seabirds; 21 Long-tails including a flock of 15 Adults.
The major highlight (and real identification challenge) were South Polar Skuas. Since I'm been back home and done a bit more research it seems that the Id of these versus Great Skua (Particularly Greats in 2nd and 3rd cal year plumage ) is a bit of a minefield, but I'm confident on three Individuals as South Polar and less so on a fourth.
This species was on my radar for the trip, I was aware that SPS performs a loop migration into the N.Atlantic outside it's breeding season which roughly speaking takes them into the Gulf Stream off the eastern states from May, then by Sept birds are in the region of the Canaries and then by October birds are off the west coast of Africa. Intrestingly the three good candidates (plus the other one) were all identified on the outward journey on two consecutive days; two birds on Sept 20th at approximately 400 nautical miles north of the Azores and then one (plus the one I'm less sure about) on Sept 21st at approximately 360m nautical miles from Newfoundland. On the return journey spanning October 6th-10th the only large skuas positively identified were all Greats which makes sense as you'd expect the majority of SPS to be distributed further SE towards the Canaries/Africa by then.
Now for the Pics-
Bird A and B were two birds identified as SPS to the north of the Azores on Sept 20th. These were noted in association with a large concentration of Great and Cory's Shearwaters. Shortly after seeing these two we passed another three large skuas sitting on the sea amongst a flock of shearwaters, they had cold looking plumage tones, so were certainly interesting but the distance and brevity of the views didn't allow positive ID.

Bird A-pale crown and nape, cold upperpart tones lacking gingery streaking expected in Great Skua. Most importantly shows uniform scapulars.

Bird A- very black looking underwing coverts.


Bird A-with Great and Cory's Shearwaters. It was seen to land on the sea and beat up a Great Shearwater for food.

Bird B-cold plumage tones, some fine streaking might be present on mantle/scaps? Difficult to be sure from the photo quality. Some older SPS can show some fine streaking in the scapulars but still different to the coarse markings found on Greats. Pale head/nape just visible in lower pic.

Birds C and D noted at approximately 360 nautical miles from Newfoundland on Sept 21st-

Bird C-not so sure about this one. Lighting not ideal and photo cropped but there appears to be some coarse spotting on the mantle/scaps that would fit better with a Great Skua?

Bird D-more distant and the photos again heavily cropped but very striking plumage that is very cold toned and contrasting. Pale crown, nape and body contrast with striking black underwing coverts. I would favour a South Polar for this one.