MA - Leach's Storm-petrel - 07/21

Leach's (left) and Wilson's Storm-petrels - Atlantis Canyon area, Massachusetts waters, July 21st, 2012. Shot taken on the Brookline Bird Club Extreme Pelagic, an 'extremely' successful outing with a fine haul of 112 Leach's Storm-petrels recorded. Moreover, the views of the Leach's were exceptional with prolonged looks at birds around the boat and foraging around the chum slick. The same trip was highlighted by the finding of a Black-capped Petrel, about the 6th state record but the only the second to be photographically documented. Panasonic Lumix FZ40.

MA - Leach's Storm-petrels - 07/18

Leach's Storm-petrels provided yet another exciting element the BBC Extreme Pelagic on July 18th with good numbers (58 logged) being recorded throughout the warmer waters along the shelf edge. Most of the extreme pelagics that I've been on have produced one to three Leach's, but this particular day produced several small flocks composed entirely of this species! As with other storm-petrels, views were often fleeting but occasionally good.

Wilson's Storm-petrel. Seen throughout the day with close to 500 being recorded.

Leach's Storm-petrel, Atlantis Canyon area - July 19th.

Another highlight of the BBC Extreme pelagic on July 19th was the 'storm-petrel' show, with three species of black-and-white storm-petrels identified. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with any presentable shots of the two Band-rumped Storm-petrels that I saw that day but did grab a few digibin images of one of about five Leach's Storm-petrels identified.

On personal level I found picking out and identifying the scarcer storm-petrels from the numerous Wilson's especially difficult making me realize that I need a lot more experience at sea. On the other hand, it became pretty clear that a thorough 'grilling' of a resting flock of Wilson's could well yield something scarce or rare. Hopefully, I'll be better prepared for the next extreme pelagic!

Just a reminder that all of the images on the blog can be enlarged with a single click on the image.


Leach's Storm-petrel - Extreme right bird, amongst resting flock of Wilson's. At rest appeared larger, more uniform brown with a different head/bill shape, the bill being proportionately longer, more slender and drooping.


Leach's Storm-petrel - Upper center; Obviously larger than Wilson's, and in this shot, shows quite deeply forked tail.


Leach's Storm-petrel - Left; gliding on long, bowed wings with diagnostic rump pattern (white rump split by gray-brown central stripe). The storm-petrel on the right appears to show a bizarre white blaze on the underwing (suggestive of European Storm-petrel) which I'm assuming to be some sort of photographic artifact.


Leach's Storm-petrel - Left; poor shot but different wing shape and divided rump pattern of Leach's still evident.


Leach's Storm-petrel - Looks much longer winged than Wilson's in this shot lacking the stiff-winged appearance of that species. The divided rump pattern is also just visible.