Pomarine Jaeger, Stercorarius pomarinus, is the largest and most common of the Jaegers found off the coast of the Carolinas. This bird was bullying a Royal Tern and successfully took his meal.
It breeds in the far north where it feeds on lemmings.
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Leach
Leach’s Storm Petrel, Oceanodroma leucorhoa, is a widespread member of the Storm-Petrel Family. They have a dark plumage with a white rump, although there are populations which have a darker rump.
They are highly pelagic and don’t normally follow ships.
It breeds on northern hemisphere islands of the Atlantic and Pacific and only returns to the nest at night.
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Audubon’s Shearwater, Puffinus lherminieri, usually has a small white spot in front of the eye and partially dark under tail coverts. See the notes for Manx Shearwater regarding the differences in these species.It is widespread in all tropical oceans.
The taxonomy of this species is not generally agreed upon. It has been listed with up to 10 subspecies, some of which have been treated as full species, such as Galapagos and Christmas Shearwater.
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Cape Hatteras lies along the Outer Banks off North Carolina. It has miles of clean beaches and, although it is a favorite tourist destination, you can always claim a quiet deserted spot for yourself.
For a gallery of Cape Hatteras Images follow this link:
Cape Hatteras Landscape Gallery
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The South Polar Skua, Stercorarius maccormicki, is the only polymorphic skua, it has a range of plumage from light to dark. Shown here is a dark plumaged bird like most found on the east coast of North America. It breeds in Antarctica and ranges widely throughout the oceans of the world.
It breeds on the Antarctic coast and can be very aggressive to human intruders around the nest.
It migrates throughout the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. In the northern Atlantic it is replaced by the Great Skua.
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White-tailed Tropicbird, Phaethon lepturus, s a bird occasionally seen on Hatteras pelagics but one I’d missed for a few trips. On this day, it was the first bird seen, it circled the boat once, and was gone. It nests as far north as Bermuda in the Caribbean.
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Although this is a distant shot, it was an exciting photographic record for me. It is only the third record for North America. It and the British Storm-Petrel, are super rarities occasionally found on these trips
As you can see from NatureServe Range Map, it is far from where it is normally found. On the other hand, a lot of information on ranges is still to be documented.
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Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, Oceanitis oceanicus, is very common in east coast waters. Less common but regularily seen are Leach’s and Band-rumped, and the White-faced which is very rare. Very widespread, and commonly feeds around the slicks of ships. While members of the Storm-Petrel family all have a habit of pattering with their feet on the surface of the sea, this species is especially prone to it.
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Manx Shearwater, Puffinus puffinus, a small shearwater told from Audubon’s Shearwater by light under tail coverts as well as a pale crescent behind dark auriculars. It is also proportionally longer winged and shorter tailed than Audubon’s. Less common of the two in this area. The bird was originally named Manx because it was found on a small island off of the Isle of Mann.
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Sooty Shearwater, Puffinus griseus, breeds on sub-Antarctic islands but disperses widely. For an interesting report on their marathon migrations, see here.
An all dark upper plumage with underparts showing a varying lighter flash. The Short-tailed Shearwater is very similar but this species hasn’t been recorded on the east coast.
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