To Hatteras: Neil
Hayward and I had been in communication about the Hatteras special pelagic trip
for Great Skua with Brian Patteson. Neil
had obtained a motel room with two beds at the Hatteras Island Inn in Buxton and
offered to share that room with me.
However, due to the late arrival of my flight to Raleigh-Duham, I would
not have much opportunity to share that room.
However, Neil suggested that I come to the motel and call him upon my
arrival. I could catch a short amount of
sleep before leaving for Hatteras to meet the boat.
There had also been a plan to chase a possible Grey Heron in
Rhode Island on Sunday after the pelagic trip if the bird showed up again and
was confirmed as a Grey Heron. Neil had
made tentative reservations to fly out on Sunday morning. However, the possible Grey Heron turned into
an immature Great Blue Heron. A gray day had turned into a blue day. Pun intended.
The drive to Hatteras was uneventful. I was very awake and excited about the
possibility of seeing and adding Great Skua to my list. I had seen Great Skua once before on a
Richard Rowlett pelagic trip out of Ocean City, Maryland on February 2, 1974,
while living and working in Delaware after graduate school. That was a long time ago! It would be good to see one again. I had gone on several of Brian Patteson’s
January and February pelagic trips since that first sighting to look for this
bird again, but had never succeeded.
Approximately half-way to Hatteras Island Inn in Buxton, I
stopped in Plymouth, NC, at 2:00 am at a Hess Station Quick-stop to pick up
food and drink for the pelagic trip and cup of coffee as insurance against
feeling sleepy. The instructions that we
received from Brian Patteson were to be at the dock at 6:15 am. I would not have a lot of time in the
morning to pick up supplies. In
addition, on previous pelagic trips out of Hatteras, particularly early in the
morning before the trip, I have not had success finding my preferred pelagic
trip food and drink to keep my stomach settled, pretzels and 7Up or Canada Dry. Consequently, I knew from experience going on
Brian’s pelagic trips that I needed to stop on the way to Hatteras somewhere to
find supplies for the pelagic trip. I
did not pick up any breakfast supplies at this stop, because I believed that
Teach’s Lair would be open just before the trip to pick up coffee and some
breakfast supplies. With supplies in hand, I continued an uneventful trip to Buxton. As I crossed the bridge across the Alligator Rive, I noticed the moon in the distance. It was a clear night and it was beautiful. At the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge across Crotian Sound, I stopped to try a photo through my windshield. However, it is not a good photo, but gives the correct impression of a long lonely drive. See photo below.
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| Small one quarter moon just above Virginia Dare Memorial bridge. |
I arrived at the Hatteras Island Inn in Buxton outside of
Neil’s room and called his cell phone at 4:22 am. Neil let me in and fell into bed for another
hour or so. First I unpacked my gear
needed for tomorrow. Warm clothes, boots
and wet gear and prepared to leave promptly in the morning. Soon, I was in the bed with the lights out,
but not for long. It seemed like a few
minutes but was actually about 45 minutes.
Neil was up grabbing his gear and heading out the door. I checked the time and opted for about 15 more
minutes of rest. Then I was up and out
the door heading for Hatteras and the dock.
I stopped at Teach’s Lair just before the parking lot for the docks to
pick up some breakfast, coffee juice and some breakfast bars. I was a little late. It was about 6:20 am. In the parking lot, I put on my boots, and
grabbed all my gear and headed toward the docks. When I got to the docks, I noticed that there
was no boat in the usual place where Brian’s Stormy Petrel is docked. My first thought was, I was late and they
left without me. Then, I realized that I
had not asked where the F/V Skua, Brian’s smaller boat was docked. Everything was dark except for some lights on
a boat across from Brian’s usual docking spot.
I walked across to that dock and found a group of people standing at the
steps down to the dock. One of them was
Neil Hayward. I was in luck! They had not left without me! Captain (and birder) Brian Patteson and Kate Sutherland (multi-skilled--crew, chummer, photographer, spotter and birder) were preparing the boat with lights on for our trip.
Soon we were on the boat.
I put on my wet pants, and continued with my breakfast of bars, juice and
coffee. I had taken my seasickness
medication, Bonine, at Teach’s Lair with my first drinks of coffee and juice
and a breakfast bar. As we headed out
through the inlet, I finished my breakfast, most importantly my coffee, and met
the others on the boat, seven total, including Nate Swick (outstanding birder
and ABA blogger), Lynne Miller (of the ABA), Bruce Richardson (with lots of
birding experience in Australia and the US), my Big Year birding buddy Neil
Hayward, and of course, Brian Patteson and Kate Sutherland. At first there were not many birds, but as we
got further outside the inlet, approaching the Diamond Shoals (according to
Brian), Kate started chumming the mixture of fish parts and beef fat. The gulls started showing up. The first good bird to show up was an
immature Kittiwake at about 9:00 am. See
photo below. |
| Black-legged Kittiwake, immature |
Later, there was also at least one adult Black-legged Kittiwake. Then, at about 9:20-9:25 am, a nice adult Lesser Black-backed
Gull appeared in the wake to fight with the other gulls for chum. The times are based on the times recorded
when my photos were taken. See photo below.
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull darker gray than Herring Gull, yellow legs and feet |
A few minutes before 9:45 am, a Manx Shearwater flew into
the wake and took several turns past the boat.
I had first seen Manx Shearwaters in November on a Paulagics pelagic
trip out of Lewes Delaware. However,
this was a much better and closer look, and I was able to get photos. See photo below.
We were out far enough to see the “Tower,” an old oil
drilling platform. We started heading
toward the “Tower” and then headed north.
At 10:52 am, according to Brian’s Patteson’s account, someone said
“skua” coming into the wake and gulls but not very loud.
It was Nate who first spotted the skua, and soon the yelling “SKUA” was
loud. I never got on the bird, as the
skua flew off into the distance as a speck.
Neil saw it as a speck in the distance and didn’t sound real confident
that he had seen it well enough to identify it as a Great Skua. I knew I hadn’t. If this was the typical sighting of one quick
flyby, I had blown it. However, due to
Brian’s diligence in chasing the skua with the very fast and agile F/V Skua and
this Great Skua being a cooperative one, the bird hung around for about 20+
minutes. It was easy to see the reddish
brown or cinnamon color of the underparts and the buffy rufous speckling on the
upper parts, which looked almost golden in the bright sunshine, on this Great
Skua as it flew around us and back and forth chasing gulls.
Everyone got great looks, and many flight photos were taken as well as a
few of the Great Skua sitting on the water.
See my photos below. My Great
Skua photos were taken from 11:14 am until 11:26 am.
 |
| Manx Shearwater dark above, very white below, white under-tail coverts white triangle behind ear coverts on face |
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| Great Skua |
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| Great Skua large bulky size, stubby tail, heavy bill large amount of white a primary base buffy to golden speckling on upper parts reddish brown to cinnamon color |
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| Great Skua taking off from water |
This was such a fantastic experience that I have included
more photos than I usually do. It was an
exciting twenty minutes or more. This
was my best view of a Great Skua, and an absolutely outstanding
experience. The Great Skua was a life bird for Lynne Miller and Bruce Richardson. Special thanks to Brian and
Kate for making it happen. I was
ecstatic. I’m sure that Neil was
also. We came! We tried!
We succeeded! What a last minute
success on long Big Years for Neil and me.
I was particularly happy for Neil that Great Skua put him in position to
break the record. See photo below of two
very happy Big Year birders.
 |
| Jay and Neil Big Smiles after Adding Great Skua, photo by Neil |
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| Northern Gannet |
We saw at least one Northern Fulmar, light morph, perhaps
two, a flock of Razorbills and a Sooty Shearwater, a special treat to see one in the winter. See photo below.
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| Sooty Shearwater |
Two Loggerhead Turtles were another special treat. See photo below.
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| Loggerhead Turtle |
We arrived back at
the dock early while it was still light.
Below is a photo of the happy birders and crew--smiles all around!.
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| Happy Birders Nate Swick, Lynne Miller, Bruce Richardson, Jay Lehman (back), Kate Sutherland (front), Brian Patteson, Neil Hayward |
I headed back toward the Raleigh-Durham area to Chris’s
house, stopping only for some gas and a cup of coffee. Neil arrived later. He stopped for a longer time for a phone
call. It was fun to sit with Chris and
Neil to toast our Big Year successes. I
was really pleased to be able to toast Neil’s fantastic Big Year. He is a really good guy and birder. Thanks to Chris for his friendship and
hospitality.
I had to break off early.
I still had one bird to chase for my Big Year—Smith’s Longspur in
Arkansas at Stuttgart Airport in eastern Arkansas about one hour from Little
Rock. I had made reservations to fly
from Raleigh-Durham to Little Rock, Arkansas early in the morning. The morning would come too soon again! I also had to return home to renew my
driver’s license due by December 31.
Great Skua raises the total to 732 plus two provisionals,
Common Redstart and Eurasian Sparrowhawk as of December 28. (See the final total for the year, 733 + 2
provisionals, reported on January 3, 2014.)
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