Sept 14, 2024 Port Aransas Trip Report

14 Hr TX Pelagic Report Sept 14, 2024:

On Sept 14, 2024 a 14-hour Texas Pelagic trip was run out of Port Aransas onboard the Kingfisher from Deep Sea Headquarters. As the 33 participants and 5 leaders gathered on the dock, we all wondered what the effect of the passage of Hurricane Francine earlier in the week might have on the pelagic seabirds. The seas were over 12 feet up until Thursday during the week preceding Saturday’s trip due to the passage of Hurricane Francine. Luckily by Friday the seas had settled down to the 1-2 ft range.

By Saturday morning however the winds had picked up slightly and seas were 2+ feet range. By daylight and during the morning seas were in the 2-3 ft range with a fair amount of windblown spray as we cruised SE toward our first stop the Nueces dome. We had a few Magnificent Frigatebirds, and 2 Cory’s/Scopoli’s Shearwaters. A Brown Booby followed the boat for at least 10 minutes. The main excitement of the morning was what was mistakenly identified as a Brown Noddy. Photo review later revealed the forked tail, which this bird kept tightly closed and the dingy white wing linings and vent, meaning it was in fact a juvenile Sooty Tern.

Then we flushed 2 Bridled Terns. We were able to follow these birds for a while allowing everyone decent views. Two late Band-rumped Storm-Petrels were found sitting on the water. We tried setting out a chum slick for a while after seeing the Storm-Petrels but were unable to attract them to the slick, however as we were about to depart John O’Brien caught a glimpse of a small brown toothed whale (unknown sp.). After waiting few minutes, it never resurfaced, and John was the only one to have seen it.

After noon, the winds started to die down and by noon the seas calmed down to a very pleasant 1-2 feet. The biggest excitement came around 12:30 pm just when I went back to grab a sandwich. A large flock of terns over a school of tuna was spotted in the distance, something I hadn’t seen in a few years and always an amazing sight. After following the flock around for about an hour we tallied probably 45+ Sooty Terns, 10+ Bridled Terns, 10 + Cory’s/Scopoli’s Shearwaters (mostly Scop), 2 Brown Boobies, 100+ Black Terns and finally a Long-tailed Jaeger chasing a Sooty Tern. As if that wasn’t spectacular enough 2 Sperm Whales surfaced a couple hundred yards away. WOW!

After the tern flock disappeared, we started the long cruise west back to Port A still searching for shrimp boats to investigate. Two more small whale spouts were spotted by a couple people but again we never could locate the whales that caused them. Along the way we had another flyby Brown Booby and a flyby Masked Booby following a freighter. We had run out of time to investigate any shrimpers and didn’t see any close to our course.

Overall, an EXCELLENT Texas Pelagic!!

I want to thank the 33 Participants for their continued interest in going on Texas Pelagic trips. Twenty-three of the participants were first timers to pelagic birding or Texas Pelagic birding and they all got many lifers. One couple had 6 and 7 lifers. It’s aways exciting to see so many birders get so many lifers in one day. I Also want to thank our 4 Leaders – Jeff Sexton, John O’Brien, Ryan Rodriguez, and Wyatt Eglehoff for their dedication to these trips and contributing to its success. Also, Captain’s Jon McIntyre and Marvin did a great job as usual positioning the boat and chasing down seabirds.

I hope all our new pelagic seabirders will strongly consider coming on a trip next year. There will likely be two trips.

Good seabirding,
Gary Hodne

PS. Petra Hockey one of Texas biggest Texas Pelagics fans and former leader posted this to Facebook which I thought added a nice perspective on the trip.

Last Saturday I went waaaay out into the Gulf of Mexico on our only Texas Pelagics birding trip of the year.

On the way out it was a little bit choppy with some spray but calmed down nicely before noon. On this 14-hour trip we left at 5 a.m. in the dark but as soon as it got bright enough to see we already had flying fish jumping around the hull and a Brown Booby accompanied the boat, silhouetted against the pre-sunrise glow.

A couple of Band-rumped Storm-Petrels were very cooperative and allowed a close enough photo to see the unusual shape of the white rump patch on one of them which was likely caused by molt.

As on most trips there are a couple of hours here and there where activity is low, but we managed to find a very respectable number of seabirds with the highlight being a school of tuna that had big numbers of Sooty Terns, some Bridled Terns, and many Scopoli’s/Cory’s Shearwaters in attendance. A rarely seen Long-tailed Jaeger was chasing after a Sooty Tern.

In this general vicinity we also spotted a whale blow then later saw the back of a Sperm Whale break the water’s surface and dive back under. Another Sperm Whale blow – identifiable by its unique angled spout – was seen at a distance.

But even low activity periods are never boring out there. Flying fishes of different species, colors and sizes were all around us for many of the 14 hours at sea. The deep blue water reflecting the sun rays in a star pattern has a mesmerizing effect on me. While underway, we saw a mahi-mahi clear the surface and, on the return, not far from the entrance into the Port Aransas jetties and just after we had seen an adult Masked Booby heading for a container ship, I saw a large tarpon send a school of bait flying out of the water like a puff of silvery smoke.

It was great to be out in the Deep Blue again and have so many young birders on the boat sharing the enthusiasm.

Petra Hockey.

Here is a map of the trip track (in light blue) as recorded by my GPS.

There will be 2 Texas Pelagics planned for 2025. Tentative dates are:

1. July 12, 2025:  potentially from S Padre Island.

2. Sept 13, 2025: from Port Aransas.

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