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All:
I had the pribelege and pleasure of joining a research group 13-14 Sept. on a
90-ft vessel working on Roseway Basin, a deepening between CSI and
Browns Bank, off S. NS. This is a concentration area for N. Right Whales,
although they're not as populous as in Grand Manan Basin. You may have heard
via news broadcasts that Dalhousie research on large-ship traffic that has
hitherto crossed over the basin, to the danger ofthe whales, has led to
government and industry decisions to divert such shipping in future - good
news.
The basin is, like Grand Manan Basin,a "sink" for vast populations of
overwintering Calanus finmarchicus, certainly one of the world's most abundant
animal species. Older stages of this planktonic copepod descend to the depths
in summer and stay there 'til late winter, because the deep waters of such
basins stay more-or-less in place throughout. They supply the N. Right Whale's
food through summer. Calanus is extremely rich in "oil" that goes directly
into blubber. The cruise was partly concerned with sampling the copepods at
various depths to ascertain their energy content and abundance. There may have
been a sea change in the area that has benefited the whales. There are
suggestions that euphausiid shrimp ("krill") were more abundant there in the
1980s, Calanus less so.
Seabirds were a little disappointing, considering we were 40-50 n. miles
offshore. I might have spent Saturday afternoon with Mike King and Fulton
Lavender at Chebucto Head. I saw the following during the almost flat-calm two
days, approximately. (I was only able to watch some of the time, but tried to
avoid recounting - birds were hanging about in patches in the almost windless
conditions):
80 N. Fulmars (of which about 8-10 were dark-phase)
300 Greater and 6 Sooty Shearwaters
Only one Cory's Shearwater. Possibly the fact that the surface waters were a
relatively cool (for this time of year) 15 C, has something to do with the
absence of this species, which is usually regular in September.
12 Wilson's and 4 Leach's Storm-Petrels
Only one N. Gannet (are they more inshore? Cf. Chrbucto Head results.)
25 Red-necked and 6 Red Phalaropes (Interesting balance; the former munch on
Calanus, I believe.)
Hundreds of Herring and Gt. Black-nabacked Gulls, including some juvs. that
seemed to be attended by adults??
1 Pomarine chasing a Parasitic Jaeger(the only jaegers)
A few Atl. Puffins were seen offshore, but many more, including juvs., on the
weay in on Fri. evening.
I was hoping (ever so) for something like the Macaronesian Shearwater (formerly
Little Shearwater) the fist U.S. sight record of which was off Mass. a few
weeks ago. NS has an old specimen record from Sable I., and a few possible
sight records since, including a very connvinncing three well off Sable I. in
2005. Maybe the SE gale on Saturday would have helped.
Also of interest were the usual "lost" landbirds. We had two Com Yellowthroats
briefly aboard, and a Red-br. Nuthatch that foraged al over the vessel, and was
last seen flycatching (!) a largish insect, tnen setting out to the NW towards
land. The nicest guest was an exhausted fem. Am. Kesterl that supplied many
photo ops, for which it was repaid by a lift to near land Fri. eve, when it
left us without a thank-you.
> Chebucto Head 3:30-6:30pm
> 250 greater shearwaters,12 sooty shearwaters,2 cory's shearwaters
> 25 wilson's storm petrels,2 leach's storm petrels
> 12 pomarine jaegers,1 parasitic jaeger
> 3 black-legged kittiwakes
> 46 common terns
> 100 gannets
> GO BIRDING
> Mike
>
>
>
>
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