Hatteras and Oregon Inlet- Background Information
Hatteras is the closest port to the Gulf Stream north of Florida. It is only 20 to 30 miles away from the inlet here. The Gulf Stream is usually 35 to 45 miles from Oregon Inlet, thus 45 to 55 miles from Manteo or Pirate's Cove Marina. When I began organizing pelagic trips in North Carolina in the early 90's there were not any suitable boats available in Hatteras for charters of more than six people, so we ran trips on the only "inspected boat" available for offshore trips, which operated out of Pirate's Cove (Oregon Inlet.). (All charter boats licensed to carry seven or more passengers are subject to annual inspection by the U.S. Coast Guard, so they are commonly referred to as "inspected boats." Some are also called "head boats" because they frequently run fishing trips and cruises where individuals buy tickets and thus pay "by the head.") Running trips from Hatteras became feasible when Spurgeon Stowe brought in the new Miss Hatteras in 1993. There was a big surge in interest in going from Hatteras for a number of years, especially in the summer- tropicbird time- during the mid to late nineties. We continued Oregon Inlet trips, sometimes on weekdays, when it was not feasible to charter the Miss Hatteras , as well as on other weekends, so that we did not always need to draw as many people to run trips. More recently, there has been more interest in spring trips, and for several years, we ran trips from both Hatteras and Manteo on the same days in late May. We also ran a number of weekday spring trips from Manteo to accommodate this demand during 2004 and 2005. The boat that we used in Manteo could accommodate about 25 people. When we chartered the Miss Hatteras, we needed more people than that just to run a trip, and we could take over 50 people.
We now use our boat, the Stormy Petrel II, for all of our trips, and we run mostly from Hatteras. We are licensed to take over 40 people up to 100 miles offshore, but we limit our trips to about 25 passengers. Because we own the boat, we can run with as few as 10 passengers. That means you can book months in advance and be relatively well-assured that your trip(s) will sail, weather permitting. It also means that we are able to offer more dates because we don't have to book so many people per trip as we did to charter other boats. That way you can take advantage of being able to sign up for a number of trips in succession if might be a long time before you can get back to North Carolina.
Are the birds different between Oregon Inlet and Hatteras?
For the most part, no, not in the Gulf Stream. Over the years, there has been little overlap in coverage between trips from Oregon Inlet and Hatteras, but generally the bird lists from two boats in the Gulf Stream (similar water temps) on a given day will be the almost same even though they might be 30 to 50 miles apart. These are short distances for seabirds. Even resting on the water, seabirds in the Gulf Stream will move at 3 to 4 knots over the bottom when they are in the "hard current." Thus, they might cover 20 miles in 5 hours if they never fly at all. The scarcity of some of the birds we see means that some of these are not seen every day, so if two boats were out concurrently, one boat might see a European Storm-Petrel or Fea's Petrel and the other boat might not. But the tables could easily be turned a day or two later; it's just luck of the draw.
In late summer the waters east of Oregon Inlet are better for White-faced Storm-Petrel. This is actually north of the Gulf Stream. The same type of situation is found off the Va. Capes. Therefore in August and September, we sometimes offer trips in these areas. Likewise in the winter, these same areas can be good for Dovekie and Atlantic Puffin, perhaps better than Cape Hatteras, which is much closer to the warm Gulf Stream.
Do you go to different places on consecutive days?
Sometimes we do. We pick our route based on the sea conditions, the position of the Gulf Stream (which varies from day to day), the weather forecast, and the birds. There is so much turnover in the composition of the bird life in a given area from day to day, that it usually doesn't matter if we cover the same general area two days in a row. The Gulf Stream current imparts a tremendous influence here, and so does the wind. There will be areas which are generally more productive based on the wind, the current, and the bottom topography. We will try to visit those areas which we expect to be most productive on a given day, but we also try to pick a route which will be as comfortable as possible.
Winter Trips - Over the last several years about 70% of our scheduled pelagic trips from January to March have made it offshore. About 35% of these trips went on the Sunday weather date. In the case of extremely bad weather (like a northeaster or strong cold front) a trip may be canceled the day before. You may call (252) 986-1363 the Friday before a trip to check on trip status. If there is no message to indicate the trip has been canceled or postponed until Sunday, you should plan to show up as scheduled on Saturday morning. Experience has taught us that weather forecasts are often unreliable, particularly 24 hours prior to a departure, so the final decision about whether or not to go will usually be made by the boat captain the morning of the trip.
All Other Trips - Plan to show up at the dock where a decision will be made on the morning of the trip unless really severe weather (strong low pressure system) threatens the area. In this case call (252) 986-1363 to find out if the trip has been cancelled or postponed.
Regardless of the season, don't automatically assume that a trip will be cancelled just because the weather service is forecasting something like 6 or 8 foot seas or 20 or 25 knot winds. Taken in combination, say 20-25 knot winds with 6-8 foot seas, that might be enough to prevent us from going. But if you take those forecasted conditions out of context, say for example a 6-8 foot sea with light and variable winds (i.e., a gentle swell), or a brief period of 20-25 knot westerly winds during the morning (behind us), you might end up with a dreadful misconception of an otherwise pretty day. Remember also, that weather forecasts (especially 24 hours or more in advance) are notoriously unreliable, and we have many years of experience in dealing with this. So, have a little faith. Not much is worse than canceling a pelagic trip and having the weather turn out to be beautiful. Also, don't figure that we won't go if it is raining. We often do. Downpours usually let up and the birds are out in the rain!
In the event that a trip is weathered out or if you have additional time to, you will find excellent birding onshore near both departure points. Detailed information about birding hotspots in Maryland and Virginia can be found in Finding Birds in the National Capital Area by Claudia Wilds. John Fussell’s book, A Birder’s Guide to Coastal North Carolina provides excellent coverage of the North Carolina Outer Banks. Both of these books are widely available in bookstores or can be ordered from the American Birding Association at 1-800-634-7736.
When it comes to getting the most out of a pelagic trip, two words come to mind: preparation and participation. Time and time again, we find that those birders who have done their "homework" before heading out, and those who take an active role in scanning and calling out birds that they spot, are the folks that see the often tough birds on these trips: the high, distant tropicbirds, the fast moving rare gadfly petrels, and the rapidly disappearing skuas.
Lets talk about preparation first. While it is true that relatively little is known about pelagic birds compared to many other species, quite a bit has been written about their identification and habits. Good places to find this information are Peter Harrison's two guides, Seabirds, and his newer photographic guide. While the illustrations in both often leave a lot to be desired, there is a lot of useful information in there, particularly in Seabirds. The Sibley Guide to Birds is without a doubt the best illustrated guide to the locally appearing species. Both Sibley and the newest edition of National Geographic include nearly all of the species that we have seen from Cape Hatteras. While it is not a book about the Atlantic, Rich Stallcup's Ocean Birds of the Nearshore Pacific does treat several species that are found in both oceans, and he does so with a depth you won't find in the field guides. Seabirds of the World by Jim Enticott and David Tipling is a nice collection of photographs of nearly all of the world’s pelagic birds in a coffee table format. Jaegers and Skuas by Klaus Malling Olsen and Hans Larson is an indispensable reference for this notoriously difficult-to-identify group. The worst field guides for studying your seabirds are Peterson's and the Golden Press guide.
Next, STUDY THE IMAGES ON OUR SITE! We have a great assortment of images of birds here that cannot be found in any book!
Now that you have studied all of the illustrations and read the relevant ID material in Birding and other journals, don't open them when you're birding at sea. Instead concentrate on looking at the birds. Take notes. Pay careful attention to size, shape, structure, flight style, color, plumage, and behavior, and use these features to help you make an identification. Burn an impression into your mind and onto paper, and then consult the books and the trip leaders. Just don't get so wrapped up in it that you forget to call out the bird! That brings us to our next topic: participation.
In order for us to have a good pelagic trip, we need active participants. Three to six leaders cannot always spot all of the birds, even if they're constantly looking in different directions. Participants ask questions, and that takes our attention from the sea. But that's good, as we like to answer questions. But, if no one else is paying attention to the ocean, a Bermuda Petrel could fly down the side of the boat and be missed, particularly on a day that is windy and rough. When customers are looking, we see more birds and more people see the birds.
As for questions, again don't be bashful. Lots of people never ask us about the rare gadfly petrels until after we have actually seen one, and then they aren't sure what they saw because they didn't know what to look for beforehand. Some of this knowledge isn't in the books, but we have it. Ask us for it. People also often spend a lot of time puzzling over Wilson's Storm-Petrels (and in doing so, miss other birds), because they are unaware how different a Leach's or Band-rumped will look when we finally run across one. If you are puzzled by these birds, as we all were at one time or another, ask us what to look for, and we will do our best to explain it to you. On the other hand, it pays to study each species carefully to get a feel for it, so that you know something different when you see it.
Finally, as I usually say before each trip, you are not going to see every bird that is called out today, and neither am I, but if you look hard, and you know what to look for, you might find something special.
Additionally, the leaders on BPI trips often bring additional reference material that is relevant each trip, including an extensive personal collection of photographs taken at sea on previous trips, many of which are available for viewing here at our site.
Bird taxonomy is constantly changing. These days there is a trend toward splitting, that is naming species by turning subspecies into "new" species. What's interesting is that some of these "new" species are not new at all. They are birds that were considered separate species long ago, but were then judged to be conspecific a few years ago when lumping was the trend in bird classification. Thus, a few species which were described many years ago and then lumped together, like the Baltimore Oriole and Bullock's Oriole, are once again given full species recognition. In the area of seabirds, we are also seeing more splits these days, and this can make it hard to keep up with what is and is not being seen offshore.
A good case in point are the gadfly petrels, known in Latin as the Pterodromas. In the early Nineties we discovered that a small Pterodroma with dark underwings was an annual spring visitor to North Carolina Gulf Stream waters. At that time the bird in question was called the Soft-plumaged Petrel, and it was comprised of three subspecies in its Atlantic range. A proposed split by W.R.P. Bourne to break the Soft-plumaged Petrel into three species was under consideration, but had not been accepted. In their radical reclassification of birds by genetic evidence, Sibley and Monroe listed these three forms as separate species and called them Soft-plumaged Petrel, Cape Verde Petrel, and Madeira Petrel. The latter two names were particularly poor choices because they both refer to birds that breed in the vicinity of Madeira, and the former also breeds at the Cape Verde Islands and not at Cape Verde, which is a peninsula on the coast of Africa. Meanwhile, we deduced, from a number of clues that I won't discuss here, that the birds that we were seeing were what Sibley and Monroe called the Cape Verde Petrel. An article by Mike Tove in the Birding discusses how these birds were identified. Because they thought Cape Verde Petrel was a poor name choice, the American Ornithologists Union adopted the name Cape Verde Islands Petrel, which was met with considerable criticism because it was cumbersome and it still did not work well because some of the population breeds in the Desertas, which are nearer to Madeira than the Cape Verde Islands. Meanwhile, the Europeans, urged by Bourne, adopted the name Fea's Petrel (in honor of its discoverer) for the Cape Verde Islands Petrel, and Zino's Petrel for the very similar and very rare Madeira Petrel, which has not yet been recorded in the Western North Atlantic, While it has not yet been published, the A.O.U.'s upcoming checklist supplement will also adopt the name Fea's Petrel. So stop using the old names and get used to hearing Fea's Petrel (hopefully over the loudspeaker on one of our boat trips). By the way it is pronounced FAY-UHZ; it's an Italian name.
If that's not enough to confuse you consider this. The bird that most of you know as the Herald Petrel (not Harold's Petrel!) was known for may years as the South Trinidad or Trinidade Petrel, named after one of the two known nesting islands of the species in the Atlantic. Similar birds breeding in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, however, made this a poor name choice, as they were all considered to be the same species, so the name Herald Petrel was adopted. In the current taxonomy, the Latin name for the species is Pterodroma arminjoniana and there are two subspecies P.a. arminjoniana, which refers to birds nesting in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and P. a. heraldica, which refers to those birds nesting in the Pacific Ocean. Will these subspecies be given full species rank in the near future? They may as there are a number of differences between the two including plumage (most notable is the lack of a white leading edge to the wing in arminjoniana), call-types, and morphology. If they are split (as a number of us believe they should be) it seems logical to call the birds that we see here Trinidade Petrels, As it is, some us feel strongly enough about the difference to call them Trinidade Petrels now, in the absence of a split. So if you hear this name in the near future, it's not a new discovery off the North Carolina coast, but rather an effort to keep up with, even if it means getting a little bit ahead of, the latest changes in taxonomy.
I hope now that you understand the reason for all of the recent name changes that made it seem like there were possibly five species of petrels when there were only two. If you thought it was just a conspiracy by pelagic birding trip operators to lure unwitting customers to the Outer Banks, now you know the real story.