This year we celebrated the 30th anniversary of our first Bar Harbor Pelagic trip running and the conditions were great! Scheduling a boat trip in mid-September is great for birds, but also hurricanes, and while most years we hope to sneak in this trip between passing storms, this year there wasn’t a cloud on the horizon. Barely two-foot seas and unlimited visibility made for a nice day cruising around in the Friendship V, Bar Harbor Whale Watch’s 112ft jet-powered catamaran—the best pelagic platform around!
We motored out to Mount Desert Rock then east to the “Cats and Dogs” to check on seabirds that had been seen in the area the prior day. Red-necked Phalaropes (and maybe a few Reds) were abundant throughout the day with 300+ near the rock. We got into a few shearwaters here too, including a Cory’s Shearwater which we’ve only had on this trip a handful of times before, though they are becoming more common in the Gulf of Maine. Pomarine Jaegers put on a good show, but perhaps the ‘bird of the day’ was the high numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls seen. We tallied at least 34 of the uncommon gulls, presumably making an offshore migration from breeding grounds in western Greenland, en route to Florida for the winter (with many options in between).
“Non birds” also kept us entertained with Atlantic White-sided Dolphins, Fin Whales, a Minke Whale, and a Humpback Whale rounding out noteworthy cetaceans. Several Blue Sharks were also seen, including one that sure looked like it was on a direct path toward a puffin! Until it wasn’t.
Many thanks to Jan Pierson and Zack Klyver for narrating throughout the trip, and Captain Matt for navigating the Friendship V around.
An eBird Trip Report with a full species list and photos from participants is available here: ebird.org/tripreport/411642
Segmented checklists were kept throughout the trip to put species in representative habitats. You can click the “view” links to see each list, or if you were on the trip you can click the “Add to my eBird” link to automatically add these lists to your eBird account. (Note: there is no Segment VIII—this was a naming error and it is too difficult to correct shared personal location names in eBird to be worth fixing.)
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2025–Segment I – View – Add to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2025–Segment II – View – Add to my eBird
Mount Desert Rock – View – Add to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2025–Segment III – View – Add to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2025–Segment IV – View – Add to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2025–Segment V (Ball Park) – View – Add to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2025–Segment VI – View – Add to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2025–Segment VII – View – Add to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2025–Segment IX (Cats and Dogs) – View – Add to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2025–Segment X – View – Add to my eBird
Maine Audubon Pelagic 2025–Segment XI – View – Add to my eBird
