New England Seabirds

News
Seabirds
Other Sea Animals
Where To Find
Pelagic Trips
Reports
Breeding Colonies
Conservation
Mail Box
Links
Wandering Birder
References

Sea Conditions
Comments


 

 
Reports | Reports 2009 | Comments | Site Map

Steve Mirick

Records of Pelagic Trips

from New Hampshire

 

 

 

 Steve Mirick compiled the results of whale watches from 1993 - 2009 to show what a great year it was on Jeffreys Ledge and surrounding waters in 2009.

In Steve's own words:

While not guaranteed to be 100% accurate, and recognizing that I do a lot better at record keeping now than I did 20 years ago, I still thought it VERY interesting to review my old bird data from Whale Watches. Since the mid to late 1980's I've been going out on the Granite State Whale Watch. Back then, Leo Axtin was the Captain and owner of the company. I would go out about once or twice per year, most often with Dennis Abbott.
 
Some of you have heard me lament about how I used to never see shearwaters. Take a look at these numbers. Especially the 1990's. THE
TOTAL from 12 different whale watches dating from 1993-1998 amounts to a grand total of 59 GREATER SHEARWATERS, 3 MANX SHEARWATERS AND JUST 2
SOOTY SHEARWATERS!!!!!
 
For comparison, in just 5 whale watches this year, we have had 3,478
Geaters, 2,759 Sooty Shearwters, 85 Cory's Shearwaters, and 7 Manx
Shearwaters.
 
That's why you should go out there on a whale watch this summer!
 
Steve Mirick

Results from 12 whale watches from New Hampshire from 1993 to 1998
  1993     1994   1995 1996     1997   1998
  7/11/ 8/15 9/6/ 6/5 8/13 8/6/ 7/14 8/10 10/13 7/26 8/5 7/25
Northern Fulmar                 1      
Cory's  Shearwater                        
Greater  Shearwater     20   3 1   2 4 1 22 6
Sooty Shearwater               2        
Manx Shearwater     1       1     1    
Wilson's  Storm-Petrel   40 30 60 3 30 194 10   75 30 2
Northern Gannet 1     15   5   4 150 12    
Red-necked Phalarope     6                  
Red Phalarope                        
Jaeger sp.                        
Parasitic Jaeger                        
Pomarine Jaeger                        
LONG-TAILED JAEGER                        
ATLANTIC PUFFIN                        
Results from  6 whale watches from 2002 - 2008 and from 5 whale watches in 2009
 
  2002 2003 2005 2006 2008   2009        
  9/21 9/20 8/20 9/17 8/9 10/11/ 7/5 7/6 7/12 8/1 8/8
Northern Fulmar             5 1      
Cory's  Shearwater 1       9   10 17 40 9 9
Greater  Shearwater 950 5 200 80 5 19 120 200 1500 1030 628
Sooty Shearwater 5 1 20       40 200 200 2010 309
Manx Shearwater 3   15 1         1 2 4
Wilson's  Storm-Petrel 4 30 150   43   500 1800 500 102 330
Northern Gannet 30 12 3 8 11 300 150 40 25 15 6
Red-necked Phalarope   1               14 7
Red Phalarope 1                    
Jaeger sp.     2 7       1 1 4 1
Parasitic Jaeger                   2  
Pomarine Jaeger       4              
LONG-TAILED JAEGER                   1  
ATLANTIC PUFFIN           1