Subject: Port McNeill, BC Pelagic
Date: Sep 9 11:29:40 2002
From: Larry Cowan - lawrencecowan at shaw.ca


Hi All,

Short note on a very successful BCFO Pelagic trip on Saturday, September 7th out of Port McNeill near the tip of Vancouver Island.

There were 30+ BCFO (British Columbia Field Ornithologists) participants from all over the Province (Prince George, Vernon, Penticton, lower mainland and Vancouver Island) and a couple from Yakima Washington.

The trip started at 07:00 with our destination being the ocean off Triangle Island. This Island is among a small archipelago of islands off the northern tip of Vancouver Island. We were heading for the 100 fathom water not far from Triangle. For this year's trip (our 2nd), it was decided we would head straight for Triangle without any stops with the exception of any rarities along the way (which there were none). Our vessel was the Niad Explorer which is basically used for whale watching and is proving to be a very good vessel for pelagic viewing.

When we reached the 100 fathom mark we immediately began to see Albatross (Black-footed). A stop was made chumming the water with fish oil. We had great looks of most of the species seen this day and at very close range with most landing on the water for various periods of time.

Highlights were great close in views of South Polar Skua, Northern Fulmar, Sooty, Pink-footed & Buller's Shearwater, Black-footed Albatross and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel.

My personal lifers for the trip were Buller's Shearwater and Tufted Puffin.

The one draw back to starting from Port McNeill is the fact you have to cover a lot of miles before you get to the open ocean. Many remarked after the trip. "If only we could get a ship of this speed for a trip out of Ucluelet." With it's speed and range we could go a "long" way off the coast. BTW I'm told we covered 200+ nautical miles during the trip and at the furthest were 75 miles off Cape Scott and 12 miles from Triangle Island.

We hoped to explore around Triangle Island on our return trip but an approaching storm from the south east forced us to head for the shelter of Vancouver Island before this part of the trip could be realized. Triangle has large colonies of Tufted Puffin and Cassin's Auklets. This storm and resulting heavy seas also delayed our "on board" lunch till after 2:00 PM.

Following is a list of the pelagic birds of interest seen on the outing.

Black-footed Albatross

Northern Fulmar

Buller's Shearwater

Pink-footed Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

Leach's Storm-Petrel

Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel

Red-necked Phalarope

Red Phalarope

Sabine's Gull

Black-legged Kittiwake

South Polar Skua

Pomarine Jaeger

Parasitic Jaeger

Common Murre

Pigeon Guillemot

Cassin's Auklet

Rhinoceros Auklet

Tufted Puffin



Great trip. Looking forward to a return trip in 2003.

Larry Cowan
Port Coquitlam
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