Brookline Bird Club Trip Report

Brookline Bird Club Extreme Pelagic - August 25, 2007

LITTLE/MACARONESIAN SHEARWATER, first photographically documented North American sight record.

A Little Shearwater representing the race that breeds on the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands in the eastern Atlantic (Puffinus assimilis baroli), was seen on August 25, 2007 roughly 60 miles south of Nantucket on a BBC boat trip from Hyannis to Veatch and Hydrographer Canyons. This is the first ever recorded in New England, and will likely be the first accepted record in the United States since an individual was washed up on a beach in South Carolina in 1883!

Until recently, the Little Shearwater (Puffinus assimilis) had been classified together with several other similar forms of small black and white shearwaters occupying oceans of the northern and southern hemispheres. Recent mitochondrial DNA research has shown that the two northern hemisphere forms (P. a. baroli and P. a. boydi) are quite different from the southern hemisphere forms and are actually more closely related to the north Atlantic form of the Audubon's Shearwater. In 2005, the British Ornithological Union decided to act on this research and reclassified the two north Atlantic forms of Little Shearwater as distinct from those in the southern hemisphere and gave them the new name Macaronesian Shearwater (P. baroli). Most European authorities have accepted that these forms are distinct, however the American Ornithological Union has not yet acted on this research and the currently accepted AOU name, and therefore American Birding Association name is still Little Shearwater.

Saturday, August 25, 2007 - Dedicated Pelagic Birding on the Helen H. out of Hyannis, to Hydrographer Canyon all day.

Join the BBC for an all-day trip to the deeper, warmer waters south of Nantucket Shoals in search of White-faced Storm-Petrel and other target birds including Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, several species of shearwater including Audubon's, jaegers, gulls, terns, and possibly South Polar and Great Skua.

Trip leaders are Rick Heil and Steve Mirick. The trip is limited to 74 people and costs $115 per BBC member, $135 per non-member. The trip will depart Hyannis before dawn and return after sunset.

For additional information contact Ida Giriunas at 781-944-5135 or ida8@verizon.net

"Click" on the map to the right for a larger image

Map created by Steve Mirick

Subject: BBC Pelagic; 25 Aug. 2007: Macaronesian Shearwater
From: Rick Heil rsheil@comcast.net
Date: 28 Aug 2007 8:20am

SATURDAY, 25 AUGUST 2007
BROOKLINE BIRD CLUB 'Extreme Pelagic' from HYANNIS, MASSACHUSETTS to VEATCH'S & HYDROGRAPHER CANYON (0400-2100 hrs.)
Weather: Mostly clear, morning and afternoon light to moderate fog, S-SW winds 5-10 mph, 62-75 F. Seas: 3-5 feet. Visibility: Generally good, although only fair in light fog and haze at times.

Every trip to these waters is an adventure into the last true frontier of New England ornithology.

More than seventy-five participants plus the captain and crew of the Helen H departed Hyannis at 0400 hrs., crossing Nantucket Sound and this time exiting through Muskeget Channel en route to Veatch's Canyon where water temperatures reached 77 F. We cruised down the center of the canyon and continued south well off the shelf edge into water more about 4000 feet deep before steaming east to Hydrographer Canyon where we worked back north, crossing the cold water Nantucket Shoals (53 F) to Nantucket Sound, arriving back in port around 2100 hrs.

The big event was the observation of a Macaronesian Shearwater (Puffinus baroli), formerly considered a subspecies of Little Shearwater (P. assimilis), which was photographed by perhaps a dozen photographers on board! Photos will be presented soon. There are two specimen records for baroli: one found dead Sable Island, NS, 1 Sep 1896 (AMNH ###; Tufts, R.W. 1986. Birds of Nova Scotia, 3rd ed. with revisions by I.A. McLaren and the Nova Scotia Bird Society. Nimbus Publishing Ltd. & The Nova Scotia Museum, Halifax, NS); one found dead Sullivan's Island, SC, Aug 1883 (MCZ #220051; Post, W. and S. A. Gauthreaux, Jr. 1989. Status and Distribution of South Carolina Birds. The Charleston Museum, Charleston, SC). There is one recent credible sight record of three birds: Bruce Mactavish saw one 23 Sep 2003 ~80 km sws. Sable Island, NS and two 80 km s. Sable I. 24 Sep (North Am. Birds 58(1):31)

Little / Macronesian Shearwater

Photos courtesy of © Blair Nikula 2007

"Click" on any image for a larger photo.

Scott Spangenberger has posted more photos to his website and Jeremiah Trimble will archive them for records committee review.

More photos from the trip can be seen at MassBird.Org on their Bird Sightings page.

Cory's Shearwater (3): One definitive borealis photographed.
Greater Shearwater (41)
Sooty Shearwater (1-2): Nantucket Shoals.
Manx Shearwater (6)
Audubon's Shearwater (3): Vicinity Veatch's Canyon.
MACARONESIAN SHEARWATER, P. baroli (1): Pursued and photographed over perhaps a ten minute period in 70+ degree water approximately 18 miles north of Veatch's Canyon at 40 18.2 N, 69 48.1 W. Formerly considered a subspecies of Little Shearwater (P. assimilis). Briefly, it was a very small shearwater with a rapid fluttery flight, exceptionally blackish upperparts, save for the notably pale wing panels and a thin white lines along the edge of the greater and median coverts. The face was very extensively white, with the dark eye isolated in the white field. The underwings appeared cleanly white, with narrow, well-defined dark borders, and the undertail coverts were extensively white as well. A careful review of full monitor photographs when they appear may fine tune some of these 'in the field' impressions. This is the first photographically documented N. Am sight record (aside from two specimen records) and obviously a first Massachusetts record, if accepted.
small shearwater sp. (1)
Wilson's Storm-Petrel (415)
BAND-RUMPED STORM-PETREL (1): Sitting with a Greater Shearwater off the shelf at 40 07.6 N, 69 05.6 W, flushed and closely observed and photographed in flight. About the sixth MA record, and only the second or third photographed.

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel
Oceanodroma castro

"Click" on any image for a larger photo.

Northern Gannet (2 sub-ads.)
Hudsonian Godwit (40): A very remarkable sighting of a migrating flock southbound late in the afternoon low over the water over Nantucket Shoals. Nest landfall Argentina?
Ruddy Turnstone (1): Circling the boat along the shelf edge.
Red-necked Phalarope (3+)
Red Phalarope (8)
phalarope sp. (8+)
Herring Gull (1 juv.)
Great Black-backed Gull (1)
Common Tern (4 ads.)
Pomarine Jaeger (1 ad./near ad.): South of Muskeget Channel.
Tree Swallow (3): Vicinity Veatch's Canyon.

A closer look at the map above with the sighting location for the Little Shearwater and the Band-rumped Storm-Petrel

"Click" on the map to the right for a larger image

Map created by Steve Mirick

Fin Whale (8+)
Humpbacked Whale (3+)
Gray Grampus (170+): Warm water canyons and slope.
SPERM WHALE (1): In 4000 ft deep water over Veatch's Canyon.
Common (Saddleback) Dolphin (40+): s. Nantucket Shoals.
Bottlenosed Dolphin (35+): warm water canyons and slope.
dolphin sp. (50+)

Hammerhead Shark sp. (1)
shark sp. (2)
Ocean Sunfish, Mola mola (2)
Manta Ray (1)

Green Darner, Anax junius (1): Along shelf edge.

Many thanks again to Ida Giriunas for organizing these trips and to the Brookline Bird Club for including them in their program, to all of the participants who make them possible by signing up, and to Marshall Iliff and Steve Mirick for their informative and insightful commentary and expertise during the cruise. Thanks to to Captain Joe Huckameyer (and crew) of the Helen H. The captain was exceptional and indeed instrumental in the chase of the Macaronesian Shearwater which permitted us to document it so well. The next trip is scheduled for November 17. If interested contact Ida at Ida8@verizon.net

Note: The above list is a summary list for the day, but totals were kept in more detailed half-hour increments. If you'd like those more detailed notes, Marshall Iliff has offered to upload those detailed notes to anyone's eBird account. Mapping features within eBird will allow you to see the exact route of the Helen H as well as the location of the Macaronesian Shearwater, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, and other species. If you have an eBird account write Marshall miliff@aol.com and express interest in the detailed notes; if you don't have one, signing up is easy at www.ebird.org

Richard S. Heil
S. Peabody, MA
rsheil@comcast.net

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