Share Leach’s Storm Petrel Bonanza Sets New Record for Highest Number Ever Seen in Texas. Hi Seabirders, The end of August is a great time for a Texas Pelagic trip and when the weather cooperates, like it did this day, I just know good things can happen. We had to adjust the trip times and shorten it by 2 hours due to Osprey’s owners concerns about maintenance issues. So we wouldn’t be able to reach the hoped for objective of the Camel’s Head. Never-the-less with 14 hours we would have a lot of time in ultra-deep pelagic waters and would make it out to 3,000 ft waters depth. As of 4:00am Buoy 42020 was reading about 2 foot seas and the forecast was for 2-3 ft seas for the day. It would never get over 2 foot seas for the day. As we cleared the S Padre Island jetties in the full moonlit night you could hardly tell we had reached the open Gulf by the wave action. But gradually the 2 foot seas lulled a number of tired birders to sleep at various nooks all over the rubberized deck. As the first hints of a lightening sky appeared birders began to ready themselves for the day ahead. We were treated to a beautiful moonset and about 30 minutes later a beautiful sunrise. Shortly after sunrise the first birds of the day Royal Terns flew by then like a fighter plane in hot pursuit a Pomarine Jaeger harassed them off into the distance. The next bit of excitement would come in the form of 6 Atlantic Spotted Dolphins that caught up with the boat for a brief bow joy ride. We reached the shelf edge drop-off around 9:00am and as soon as we did things really started to happen. Our first group of 4 Storm-Petrels all were Leach’s. A...
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