June 4, 2016; S Padre Island; TRIP REPORT

We kicked off the 2016 Texas Pelagic season from South Padre Island with about 2-3 foot seas as we cleared the jetties. There was a large squall line about 30 miles to the north of us that was moving away from our location. To our north lightening flashed in the far distance from the huge line of thunderstorms that extended from north of Port Mansfield hundreds of miles to past Houston according to weather radar. This was part of the same huge low pressure system that has been rotating counterclockwise over Texas for more than a week bringing record rainfalls and flooding to large parts of the state. This was fortunate for the time being but the trip was still somewhat weather challenged. As sunrise approached we found ourselves in a half and half weather pattern. To the south of us the skies were clear. As we progressed eastward towards the shelf edge the skies to the west of us gradually clouded up as another band of storms formed gradually heading in our direction.

The only birds we saw over the shelf were a few Royal Terns and a couple Black Terns. No shrimpers were present because the shrimp season hadn’t started yet, so there was little reason to linger anywhere over the shelf. We didn’t spot our first seabird, a Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, until we were well beyond the shelf edge at 10:14 am. This was followed by another half dozen storm-petrels some of which were close enough to ID as Leach’s and Band-rumped, while others stayed just a bit too far out to be sure if they were either Leach’s or Band-rumpeds.

We had a bit of excitement at 10:24 when a wheeling and arcing shearwater put on its best imitation of a Pterodroma petrel. The winds had starting gusting to over 20 mph then as a band of showers were approaching us from the west. So this Cory’s Shearwater did it’s best to take advantage of the lift to arc high left and right as it crossed our bow. I don’t ever recall seeing Cory’s Shearwaters exhibit this flight style but then I guess I haven’t seen them in high winds before.

We cruised out 55 miles to about 2,700′ of water before turning back west towards the shelf edge. We had a few light showers but nothing that prevented us from continuing to look for seabirds for more than a couple minutes.

I was manning my lookout station on the upper deck bow with Phyllis scanning ahead when I luckily had a whale blow than surface directly ahead in my binocular view at 10:57. Phyllis saw it too and so did Captain Bobby. It was brownish in color and I thought I could make out white markings on its head. It was a Mesoplodon species or possibly a Cuvier’s Beaked Whale. We slowed down to wait around for a few minutes to see if it surfaced again, but it didn’t, which is typical for beaked whales.

After reaching about 1,500 foot water depth we turned to the north to contour along the shelf edge. We continued chumming and eventually drew in a couple more Storm-Petrels. We did manage to keep some of the Storm-Petrels investigating our chum for some time but birds were still scarce.

Around 1pm a dark storm front loomed to the west so we turned south then west to try to avoid the worst looking parts of it. We spotted a couple waterspouts before we reached the rain front. By now the winds had shifted first out of the north than out of the west so we were once again fighting a head sea of about 3 feet on the return cruise. We continued through the heavy rains for about 90 minutes. The rains eventually tapered off to light enough showers where it was possible to continue searching for birds without getting too wet.

We found more black terns on the cruise back in and then suddenly I spotted a huge shark right in front of the boat at 3 pm. I yelled to Captain Bobby to stop as we cruised right over it. Within a few minutes the shark surfaced again and then several more times until we were able to determine it was a Great Hammerhead by the distinctive and definitive shape of the dorsal fin. The distance from the dorsal fin to the tail fin was about 6 feet which would make this shark about 10 feet long!

So why so few pelagic seabirds? It’s hard to know for sure but it’s been our collective experience that trips that are run after big storm activity in the Gulf sometimes don’t see very many birds. It’s possible the seabirds move out away from areas where these storms occur. This past week there had been wave after wave of huge storm fronts moving offshore from the Texas coast and sweeping eastward across the offshore waters. A seabird can easily cover many hundreds of miles in a day and may find locating food easier in areas without lots of storm activity. These storm fronts may also disrupt surface circulation patterns that can localize birds along boundaries of current loops. Sometimes the weather just doesn’t cooperate. And on this day even though the seas ranged from 2-3 ft on the way out, to 3-5 feet during the mid-day, to 1-2 ft by the end of the trip, it was a very confused wind and wave system. We started the day with SE winds of less than 10 knots, experienced higher gusts during storms and then the winds shifted to north and finally west. This produced a 3′ westerly wave chop over 3-4 ft southeast swell, which made for a rough ride at times.

Once again our leaders did an outstanding job spotting birds and providing commentary on the seabirds and marine life we were observing. I want to thank our leaders in alphabetical order: Dwight Peake, Eric Carpenter, John O’Brien, Kelly Smith, Mary Gustafson and Petra Hockey. Also the captain and crew of the recently renovated Osprey: Captain Bobby and the Mates Dillon, Fabian and Clay did a fantastic job as well.

The next Texas Pelagic is on July 23rd from Port Aransas. This could be an exciting trip! There hasn’t been a Pelagic trip run out of Port A in 12 years. It has proven to be a good location in the past, but securing a boat for pelagic birding has been a problem since it is such a popular fishing destination. Following that there are still 3 more Texas Pelagics from South Padre Island. The complete schedule can be found here:
https://texaspelagics.com/2016-schedule-2/ I hope you’ll join us.

Also if you’re interested in keeping with future trip plans and trip reports you can now sign-up for our newsletter on the home page of our website. Just look in the right-hand column and fill in the form.

Good Seabirding,
Gary Hodne
Texas Pelagics

Here is a map of the trip track as recorded by my GPS.

Pre-TRIP POSTS and ANNOUNCEMENTS:

June 4th Texas Pelagic wants you!

It is just over 2 months until the first scheduled Texas Pelagic of 2016 is set to sail. It’s hard to think about the long hot summer while Spring Migration is in full swing here on the Texas Coast. The June 4th trip is purposely schedule earlier in the Pelagic season than most previous Texas Pelagics have been run for a very good reason. This time period is when many rarities show up in the Pelagic waters off the East Coast. As one of our leaders John O’Brien stated ” I am particularly keen to get an early season trip in because that is the time that corresponds to a very interesting diversity of Pterodroma in North Carolina. We can always hope.” It is the height of the season off North Carolina when Brian Patterson runs daily trips for over 2 weeks straight, during what he calls his “Spring Blitz”. This trip coincides with the end of this “Spring Blitz” because we feel it offers good possibilities for real rarities in Texas;

Wilson’s Strom-Petrel is most likely to be found during this time frame, like one was found by Petra Hockey on June 11, 2015.

Manx Shearwater and Black-capped Petrel are a real possibility in late Spring.

We need a lot more people to sign-up within the next month if we are going to be able to run this trip. I’m hoping it appeals to those who have a sense of adventure and exploration and want to take a chance on finding a real rarity for Texas in a season that has seen very little birding in true Texas Pelagic waters

June 4th Pelagic Early Bird Discount extended to April 15th

To encourage more Texas Pelagic Fans and Fanatics to sign up for this trip I decided to extend our “Early Bird” discount until April 15th. You’ll save $20.00 of the regular fare by getting your registration and payment in before tax day.

I’m hoping that after one or a couple of these trips are run during this early season that we will have such great success that everyone will want to go out in early June. I was so disappointed that our June 13th, 2015 trip was weathered out last year, that this year we have a weather back-up date for the June 4th trip on June 11th just to help ensure we don’t miss this early season for a whole year again. That is how strongly I and all our other leaders feel about the potential for this time of year offering some good birds to see.

Last year our trip was scheduled for June 13th which was right on the heels of Petra Hockey’s Wilson’s Storm-Petrel sighting on June 11th. It was especially satisfying for me that the Wilson’s was sighted just then because I had been thinking that this was the prime time for finally seeing them in Texas Waters. They are fairly common in Louisiana off the Mississippi delta in the May to August time frame. But the Mississippi Delta and the Mississippi Canyon that extends across the shelf off the delta is the only place where Pelagic birding trips are ever run off Louisiana. So there is no data to say they don’t extend farther west towards Texas. No one ever goes birding in the deep waters of the Gulf at the right time of year off western Louisiana or Texas to be able to answer this question in my opinion.

So don’t delay, sign-up today!

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