Every Bird is Best

I was recently invited to join Alaskan birder Dave Sonneborn, with whom I have a mutual friend in Anchorage, on a series of pelagic trips out of Hatteras, North Carolina to look for seabirds.  I enjoyed getting to talk with Dave about his experiences birding in Alaska, including as a guide on the legendary Aleutian Island of Attu – the western-most point of land in the United States and magnet for lost and storm-blown Asian rarities. 

White-tailed Tropicbird, 29 May 2014

It turned out that Dave was meeting up with Virginia birder Bob Ake, who in 2010 did a Big Year and ended up observing and checking off 731 species of bird in the ABA area.  It turns out almost all the birders who listed more than 700 species during their Big Year were getting together to celebrate the achievement and do some offshore birding.  It turns out that the end of May off of Hatteras is the best time and place to try to find some rare but regular seabirds, including a bird that for several hundred years was thought to be extinct – the Bermuda Petrel.  

Great Shearwater

Between fighting off sea sickness in the rough conditions and scanning through the birds that were incessantly following the boat drawn to the chum and fish oil slick, I missed out on many of the Big Year stories that were surely being recounted.  At one point, though, I found myself standing next to Al Levantin, who became famous for getting seasick on pelagic trips after his Big Year attempt was chronicled in the book, The Big Year.  I could sympathize with this, so when I noticed that his scopolamine patch was incorrectly applied to the skin behind his ear – sticky side out – I thought I should say something.  When we finally got the confusion resolved and the patch applied correctly Al said, “I wish you hadn’t told me because I am actually feeling pretty well for a change.”  You can never discount the placebo effect. 

Trinidade Petrel, 31 May 2014

I was on board for 3 trips and a possible fourth trip was cancelled because of rough weather conditions.  We never did see the elusive Bermuda Petrel; it had been seen on a previous trip about a week before and so it continues to be regular but rare.  We did get to see many very cool and remarkable birds.  I was going to say that the “best bird” was a Trinidade Petrel, a rare seabird that breeds off of South America.  However, whenever I or another birder talks about the “best bird” they observed, it reminds me of a story:

A Zen master, Banzan, was walking through a market and overheard a conversation between a butcher and a customer.

“Give me the best cut of meat you have,” said the customer.

“Everything in the shop is the best,” replied the butcher.  “You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best.”

So here is another of the best birds from the trips, also from the south of the equator and one of the most numerous birds seen on pelagic trips off of Hatteras - Wilson's Storm-Petrel.

Wilson's Storm-Petrel