Search
Close this search box.

2019 Bar Harbor Pelagic Trip Report

On Saturday, Septmeber 14th, Maine Audubon ran its annual pelagic tour out of Bar Harbor. While the seas were unfortunately rougher than predicted, we did have a few amazing highlights while on the water:

Birds:

Great Skua takes the top place again as our highlight bird. Only a single individual was seen this year and gave us initial hesitation on species identification, but reviewing photos showed a warm brown coloration, slightly mottled appearance below, heavy bill, and inner primaries begging to be replaced. Other tubenoses were in short supply but we still had good diversity throughout the day.

Trip List

Species counts are raw numbers from the collective eBird lists and may represent double-counted individuals. See the segmented checklists, linked below, for more details on each species.

Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) – 4
Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) – 4+
Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) – 9+
Red-necked/Red Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus/fulicarius) – 26
GREAT SKUA (Stercorarius skua) – 1
Pomarine Jaeger (Stercorarius pomarinus) – 6
Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) – 2
Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) – 5
Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) – 198
Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) – 64
Common Loon (Gavia immer) – 3
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel (Oceanites oceanicus) – 17+
Leach’s Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) – 15+
Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) – 3
Great Shearwater (Ardenna gravis) – 5
Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) – 1
Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) – 28+
Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) – 20
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) – 1
Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) – 2
Merlin (Falco columbarius) – 2

Mammals:

Another quality of quantity category: We had brief views of Harbor Porpoise and Atlantic White-sided Dolphins, but the stars were a pair of known Humpback Whales, named “Churn” and “Victim” that we came across while motoring towards Grand Manan Banks.

Humpback Whale – Gulf of Maine – Doug Hitchcox

eBird Checklists

Segmented checklists were kept throughout the trip to put species in representative habitats. You can click the green “view” links to see each list, or if you were on the trip you can click the red “Add to my eBird” link to automatically add these lists to your eBird account.

Maine Audubon Pelagic 2019–Segment I – ViewAdd to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2019–Segment II – ViewAdd to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2019–Segment III (Ball Park) – ViewAdd to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2019–Segment IV – ViewAdd to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2019–Segment V – ViewAdd to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2019–Segment VI (Grand Manan Banks–South West Bank) – ViewAdd to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2019–Segment VII (Grand Manan Banks–North East Bank) – ViewAdd to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2019–Segment VIII – ViewAdd to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2019–Segment IX – ViewAdd to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2019–Segment X – ViewAdd to my eBird

Thanks!

I have to share a huge thanks to everyone who made this trip possible — from the participants that have faith we will show them birds to our guides who donate their time and efforts to making this enjoyable for everyone on board! Many thanks to Jan Pierson for his expertise on the mic. Julie, Angie, Captain Matt and the rest of the BHWW crew of the Friendship V did an amazing job getting us out there, keeping us fed and warm, and getting all of us back in one piece. Thank you everyone!