quickly drew in the others. These were watched and photographed for close to an hour before the evening light became too poor for photography and word of fish biting nearby drew us away.
Also present over the slick were 70 or more WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS and a single LEACH'S STORM-PETREL, affording ideal comparisons. Although the number of sightings is definitely on the increase, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel remains a significant rarity in New England and adjacent the Mid-Atlantic States. Whether this is due to changes in marine conditions or more consistent access by birders to deep offshore waters is hard to gauge. In New York, the species has been photographed only once before (6 Aug 2011, John Shemilt), a few miles north of this more recent encounter.
The numbers of birds seen on this overnight trip were lower than we expected, with totals of 16 GREAT SHEARWATER, 3 unidentified large Shearwater, 1 MANX SHEARWATER, 1 AUDUBON'S SHEARWATER, 26 LEACH'S STORM-PETREL and 330 WILSON'S STORM-PETREL. Our only CORY'S SHEARWATER were 5 birds seen inshore on the return trip, with two individuals less than 2 miles from the inlet. No offshore terns, gulls, jaegers, sulids, shorebirds
or passerines were seen.
As is often the case in this area, we encountered some terrific marine mammals with several pods of RISSO'S DOLPHINS (70++ total), 10+ SHORT-BEAKED COMMON DOLPHINS, 10+ OFFSHORE BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN and 7 FIN WHALE. It is equally gratifying to report that we tallied a mere 11 discarded helium balloons; well below normal. Sadly this is probably a reflection of the predominantly easterly winds rather than more responsible behavior by folks onshore.
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