I have taken several of Brian's spring and summer trips they are very good. He recently started winter trips and the following is a message he sent to people who have taken his trips before.

Seabirders,

For years I have wanted to make a sustained run of winter trips here off
Cape Hatteras, but we could never muster enough participants to do more
than three dates between January and March. This year, thanks to an
early showing of alcids, better than average winter weather on weekends,
and interest from both our salty regulars and some new passengers, we
made an epic run of winter trips. We began with five weekends
scheduled, and although participation on the first three trips was a bit
thin, we ended up with full trips toward the end, including a sixth
weekend, which we added to the schedule. In most years, we run maybe
75% of the winter trips, and of those which go, we usually run a third
of them on the Sunday weather date. This year we ran trips on six
straight Saturdays. We also ran on one Friday (which was supposed to be
prettier than Saturday by the forecast, but it didn't pan out that way)
and one Sunday, which was a spur of the moment 3/4 day trip for some of
our regulars. So, in addition to our Jan. 5 scouting trip, we ran eight
winter trips between January 19 and February 23 all from Hatteras.

Although I don't have all of the trip tallies here at hand, I will
attempt a summary list here to give you an idea of the seabird diversity
present this winter.


Northern Fulmar- seen on most of the trips in low to moderate numbers.
In the finest weather, they often ignored the boat and the chum, but on
most trips they came very close.
Black-capped Petrel- We didn't see any, but they were probably out there
in the hot, blue water where we don't expect too many alcids.
Greater Shearwater- We saw one near Diamond Tower as a southeaster
started to blow on Feb. 17 during the 3/4 day trip.
Manx Shearwater- We saw a small number over the last three trips. Most
were distant. Numbers usually peak here in March.
Northern Gannet- We saw them in numbers every day. We fed them well,
and they gave us a great show on each trip. On most trips we saw all
age classes but primarily adults.
Magnificent Frigatebird- We didn't see one, but one of our passengers
from the Feb. 16 trip, Larry Meade, photographed one at Avon while we
were offshore on Feb. 17!
Red-necked Phalarope- We might have seen two or three among the many
hundreds of flying Red Phalaropes on Feb. 23. I've never seen one here
for certain in winter, although one was ashore at Cape Point Dec. 27,
2007.
Red Phalarope- I think we saw them on all of the trips. Friday, Feb. 8
was a very good trip for them, but on Feb. 23, we saw truly huge numbers
moving east along a 10 degree temperature break southeast of the tower.
Gulls- We saw 11 and a half species when you consider "Nelson's Gull"
(Glaucous X Herring hybrid) We also saw some likely Herring X Lesser
Black-backed hybrids on a few trips.
Laughing Gull was only seen on one trip.
Little Gull- The peak was three (flying together.) We saw them on three
or four trips.
California Gull- We saw two adults. I spotted one on Jan. 19 which
followed us for miles and Kate Sutherland spotted one on Feb. 23, which
everyone saw well.
Thayer's and Iceland Gulls were each seen on one trip only.
Lesser Black-backed Gull was fairly common, with 20 or more seen most
days.
Black-legged Kittiwake was only seen on Jan. 19 and in small numbers.
Great Skua was found on 5/8 trips, beginning Jan. 19, with two or three
birds seen each day on Feb. 16, 17, and 23. There was a good showing of
piracy by a skua on Feb. 23. Our last skua was less than five miles
east of Hatteras Inlet.
Parasitic Jaeger, which is rare here after December was seen just east
of Hatteras Inlet on Feb. 9.
Dovekie- After finding two or three on Jan. 5, we missed it on Jan. 19,
probably because of choppy conditions and low numbers. Even when they
are present in reasonable numbers, rough conditions limit counts
considerably. One Jan. 26, we found one less than a mile from the
inlet. We saw over a hundred a day in late January and early February.
Our last Dovekie was only about three miles off Cape Hatteras. When the
sea was calm, we typically watched the Dovekies at very close range for
long periods.
Razorbills were present in small numbers all winter. On most trips,
they were fairly widespread from the beach out to many miles offshore,
but on Feb. 23 we found them mostly north of Diamond Shoals and less
than four miles offshore. Some years there are hundreds here, but they
might not peak until late February or early March.
Atlantic Puffin- We saw them on four trips beginning on Jan. 26. Most
were young birds, with small bills, but on Feb. 23, we saw an adult. As
with Dovekies, puffins are undercounted in choppy conditions. I think
three was the peak day count this year, but we have seen as many as
30/day here in past years.

In addition to the birds, we saw a nice array of marine mammals and
other marine life including Northern Right Whale, Humpback Whale (one
swam right under the boat Feb. 23), Common Dolphin, Atlantic Spotted
Dolphin, Bottlenose Dolphin (all trips), Loggerhead Turtle (most trips),
Ocean Sunfish, Hammerhead Shark, and Portuguese Man of War.

In closing, I would again like to thank all of our participants who
enabled us to run these trips. It is a pleasure to run these trips for
people who take such an interest in the birds. After a rugged (but
birdy) day offshore on Feb. 16, it was impressive to have eight people
show up at the boat at 0615 the next morning. On most trips there were
very few people in the (heated) cabin for most of the day. Some of
trips were cold (and rainy), but on Feb. 23, temperatures were in the
50's for most of the day.

Kate Sutherland helped to lead all of the trips, and she also dispensed
most of the chum, having to cut bait on occasion, although I ground up
and sliced about 1000 pounds of it myself. Thanks also to the others
who helped us to chum, lead, and spot birds including Kevin Metcalf, Jon
Boone, George Armistead, Dave Shoch, Steve Shultz, and Nate Dias. Derb
Carter encouraged me to add another trip to the schedule and I am glad
we did, as Feb. 23 was one of the best trips we had. Jamie Cameron and
Jeff Pippen would have been here but got sidelined by work and illness.
All of our leaders are volunteers, but they still work very hard.

I'm off to the Southern Ocean in a couple of days, but Kate will keep up
with correspondence and bookings while I am away. Some of our spring
trips are full, but we still have many dates with space. I think the
trips we have planned for late April could be very interesting. For
more information about upcoming trips, please visit our website at
http://www.seabirding.com/.

Brian Patteson
Hatteras, NC
brian at patteson.com
www.seabirding.com

Good Birding
Bob Flores
Ridgefield, WA