There’s still a mysterious ornithological frontier in Massachusetts, lying at the ragged fringe of both the state’s boundaries and our knowledge of bird distributions. To get there, you need a mariners constitution and a big boat. And, ideally, a strong stomach.
Luckily for birders, the Brookline Bird Club, or BBC, has been running several chartered birding trips each year to this deep, blue frontier, including last weekend’s annual overnight trip.
Due to a geographic peculiarity of the northeastern US coastline, a series of deep ocean canyons carved into the continental shelf 120 miles south of Hyannis are technically in Massachusetts waters. Though at the same latitude as central New Jersey, Nantucket is the closest point of land to these canyons, allowing Massachusetts birders to claim any rare birds found there. And believe me, the other states’ birders are not happy about it. North and South Korea have less tense border disputes than do state ornithological committees.
Fishermen know the canyons as a place to catch big southern game fish like yellowfin tuna, mahi mahi, and even marlins, as the influence of the Gulf Stream brings warm water marine critters of all kinds. Flying fish and bottlenose dolphins can be common, and this most recent trip turned up an extremely rare whale shark measuring over 20 feet. The water depth starts at 600 feet near the shelf edge, which is a relative kiddie pool compared with the mile-deep waters just off the shelf. This deep water environment is unlike anything in our shallow nearshore waters, and has produced Sperm Whales on previous trips, as well as members of an incredibly obscure group of toothed whales known as beaked whales. Three of what were most likely Sowerby’s Beaked Whales were photographed leaping completely out of the water on last weekend’s trip – which is not something you see every day.
The confluence of warm Gulf Stream eddies and the cold, nutrient rich Labrador Current creates upwellings - pockets of productivity in the featureless blue landscape of the open ocean. And productivity attracts birds – not a lot of birds in this case, but the few birds do you see way out there include some of the rarest birds in the US. These BBC trips are known around the country as your best chance to see a small, bizarre seabird known as the White-faced Storm-Petrel. This enigmatic species breeds in the Canary and Cape Verde islands in the eastern Atlantic, and is most often seen in late summer over these offshore Massachusetts canyons. White-faced Storm-Petrels are famous for pogo-sticking along the sea surface on their long legs, only rarely flapping their outstretched, paddle shaped wings. They are almost always alone, adding to their mystique.
Last weekend’s trip produced three sightings of this pelagic ghost bird, along with an even bigger rarity, a Black-capped Petrel. Breeding in burrows in the forested highlands of just a few Caribbean islands, this species was thought to be extinct in the early 20th century, and has been seen just a handful of times in Massachusetts. The sight of one of these sleek, super-fast seabirds streaking past in their characteristic high-arcing flight is a guaranteed adrenaline rush for any pelagic birder.
If you want in on some of this offshore ornithological action, you’ll need to get a spot on the next BBC trip. I won’t say I’ll see you out there, as my last couple of trips found me at the rail praying for death and “chumming the waters”, so to speak, rather than announcing birds over the microphone like I was supposed to be doing. So, if you don’t mind eight foot seas and the smell of fish guts for 36 hours, you can probably have my spot.
