"SKUA SEARCH" : Our annual cross-GOM search for skuas
NEWS:
Four more skuas were seen in this general area on Oct.4th, including one Great Skua and one South Polar Skua.
TRIP SUMMARY:
The top goal of this trip was to search for and find skuas, and we were successful, with four or five skua sighting on Sept.30th, at least 3 of which were different birds, spanning both species (2 Great and 1 SouthPolar were identifiable) which can be expected in northern hemisphere waters (excluding the other two species, Chilean and Brown Skuas). This report will emphasize those skuas, although many other seabirds were also seen. Links to our eBird checklists are available below; scroll way down.
Here are two photos (by Bill Asteriades) of our two different identifiable Great Skuas, a light one and a dark one. This light bird (well-seen through binoculars -- including some gold streaking/tones on the mantle & scapulars) was a warmer color than this photo shows...
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| From this photo alone, this is a skua, but not 100% sure it is a Great Skua. When combined with detailed binocular observations (further down this blog), however, this bird is a Great Skua, and Confirmed as such by eBird. |
and the bird below is a dark Great Skua, which was molting. It is our last skua sighting of the trip and the sharpest Great Skua photo of the trip (the auto-focus overcoming the distracting waves). Note the gold streaking on the back (mantle and scapulars, distinguishing it from a South Polar Skua)...
This dark Great Skua was at the west side of our planned yellow oval target zone, at longitude W 67.6:
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| Yellow oval is our planned target zone for skuas, based on our many trips on this route. Green circles are Christmas Bird Count 15-mile diameter circles. You can click on this map to enlarge it, and then press ESC key to return. This blue line is our actual GPS-logged 212-mile westbound route from Yarmouth NS to Portland ME on Sept.30, 2017. |
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| This is our ferry, with the yellow oval showing our open viewing area, on both sides. |
eBIRD CHECKLISTS FROM OUR 9/30/2017 TRIP:
Nova Scotian waters (from 809am ADT = 709am EDT):
eBird Checklist – Portland, Maine - Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Ferry (NS waters), Nova Scotia – Sat Sep 30, 2017
Maine waters (from 1010am ADT = 910am EDT):
eBird Checklist – Ferry Trip - Yarmouth, NS to Portland, ME, Maine – Sat Sep 30, 2017
DETAILED TRIP REPORT FOLLOWS for September 29-30 trip:
Ornithologists' knowledge of skuas continues to evolve, so we often have to say "probable".
Full details will be published here and on eBird, by Bill Asteriades and myself.
But here is a preliminary DRAFT summary of birds seen Sept. 29 & 30 by the following team...
William Asteriades (CT).
Charles Avenengo (RI).
Eduardo delSolar (MA).
Margaret Hodgkins (IL).
Richard Hodgkins (IL).
Tom Robben (CT).
Joe Wallace (NY).
We have photos of most of the best birds (thanks to the long-distance photo work of W.Asterides, E.delSolar and R.Hodgkins), and the most pertinent photos will be published here.
Two counts are shown next to each species below. The first number is for Friday 9/29 (limited to first 3 hours, due to sunset, from Portland to mid-GOM -- we departed Portland dock around 15:25 = 3:25pm EDT = 4:25pm ADT), and the second number is for Saturday 9/30 (full 6 hour trip from Yarmouth to Portland).
This list is now being circulated to make sure the entire team has provided their input, and additionally the full sectory-by-sector transect survey count will also be published (based on this raw data which is being assembled from audio notes: **20170929-30 GOM pelagic ferry currently under construction ), along with a map of the track we followed (see below). It will take a few more days to do all this trip documentation....
The more interesting crossing was Saturday Sept.30th, departing Yarmouth dock at 7:10am EDT (8:10am ADT Atlantic time), lasting 6hr15min, covering 212 miles dock-to-dock.
SKUA BACKGROUND:
The 3 species of jaegers are sometimes included in the group called Skuas, but by Skua we mean only the large skuas, of which we currently recognize four species: Great Skua (the only one breeding in the Northern Hemisphere), South Polar Skua, Chilean Skua and Brown (aka Antarctic) Skua (and its several subspecies). The last two species have almost never been recorded in the northern hemisphere, so they are rarely considered for field ID purposes in New England waters.
SKUA SUMMARY on Sept.30,2017:
We saw several characteristic skuas off Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Having seen a lot of skuas, the birds which I saw were all unambiguously skuas, not jaegers or anything else. Two were viewed close to the ship (#2 & #3) and shortly after that they were photographed at a distance as they flew away. We had clear fairly close views of those two, including focusing on their mantle/scapular areas (from our 30-foot high viewing locations). Two skuas (#1 and #4) were viewed only at a distance, the second one (#4) mostly behind the ship.
- #1: 8:26am EDT (9:26am ADT) one skua sp. not seen by all, and so distant that it is difficult to distinguish species/genus, because distant photos are ambiguous. This bird may or may not have flown-in surreptitiously and become the following bird #2 sighted a few minutes later....
- #2: 8:31am EDT (9:31am ADT = 12:31 GMT) one well-seen brownish & colorful skua; warm cinnamon breast, belly & flanks; back speckled/patchy; Great Skua. We were at LAT 43.737074, LON -66.825441. This was 1hr20min after leaving the Yarmouth dock (the ship cruised at 31knots outside the harbors).
- #3: 8:51-55am EDT (9:51-55am ADT) one colorless dark gray skua, uniform coloration of dorsal surfaces, South Polar Skua. Coloration looked strikingly different from the previous 8:31am skua. Two very different looking skuas.
- #4: 9:10-9:15am EDT (10:10-15am ADT) one distant dark skua sp. Shape, flight and white patches seen but too far away to see colors on the dark skua. This may have been skua #3, which may have trailed the ship at a distance and re-approached from the rear around 9:10am.
- #5: 9:37am EDT (10:37am EDT = 13:37 GMT). One actively molting darker Great Skua, just west of the Hague Line (therefore, in US waters, since the Hague Line divides the GOM into US and Canadian waters).
- eBird CONFIRMED the identity of #2, #3, and #5.
- So there were at least three and possibly five different skuas within about one hour ten minutes, in the GOM waters, mostly just east of the Hague Line. Birds #1 and #2 may be the same bird, and birds #3 and #4 may be one and the same bird. Bird #5 was unique, and on the west side of the Hague Line.
THE NEXT FEW PARAGRAPHS ARE ABOUT THE VERY PROBABLE GREAT SKUA (at 8:31am EDT):
- #2: Great Skua [Stercorarius skua] (probably Great rather than South Polar or other) 0, 1 with photos below (first 4 photos at 500mm thanks to RichardHodgkins, around 8:31am EDT Eastern Daylight time, and thanks to Margaret Hodgkins for spotting this #2 bird on the other side of the ship [possibly the same distant #1 bird Bill Asteriades spotted] and then running across the main deck to tell us to check it out). Photos taken about 50miles west of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in the colder waters of the Gulf of Maine (we recorded SST as 43-44F in the waters near Yarmouth, and 54F, ten degrees warmer in mid-GOM!).
- OPTICS: My following comments were based not on viewing the photos but the much better views I saw through my 10x42L Canon IS image-stabilized binoculars, after I was able use the IS to lock-on to the bird (to each of the skuas) for sustained rock-solid viewing, from our 30-foot high vantage point on the starboard north side of the ship. I was also able to adjust and hold a perfect focus on the bird(s), unlike the auto-focus photographs below, which focused automatically on the ocean waves rather than the bird. I studied the bird through my binoculars when it was much closer to the ship (just as it crossed in front of the ship and continued to the right) than the following photographs (which were not taken until the birds were more distant and going away). Other observers used high-quality binoculars and both Nikon (500mm lens) and Canon (400 & 600mm lenses) DSLR cameras.
- OTHER TECHNOLOGY: A small digital voice recorder was used to make note of the birds we all saw, minute-by-minute, and the key field marks as we all called them out, e.g., with the skuas. A digital wristwatch was set to the exact time (by an iPhone) at the beginning of the trip and used throughout as the official clock for observations. An infrared temperature sensing gun was used to measure SST sea surface temperature of the water. An iPhone GPS program was used to log the track of the ship. Three walkie-talkies were used (successfully) to facilitate occasional coverage of both sides of the ship, although 90% of observations were made on the north side of the ship (with most focus in the 1-o'clock to 4-o'clock angle of view), so we could have the benefits of back-lighting.
- PREPARATION: To get fully prepared for this trip, three weeks earlier on Sept.10th I spent time in the Harvard University Dept of Ornithology bird collection with curator Jeremiah Trimble doing comparisons of skins of Great Skua, South Polar Skua and dark morph Pomarine Jaegers, so I was fully reminded of the importance of the way the back (both mantle and scapulars) looks for distinguishing skuas, and looked for that when I saw the skuas on Sept.30th.
- OBSERVATION DETAILS: This bird #2 was obviously a large skua, not a jaeger (we saw a dark morph Pomarine Jaeger at 10:46am, in the same light, in the same viewing angle from the ship). Large, chunky, short-tailed, big broad wings, bright white flashes at the base of the primaries (on both upper and lower surfaces), powerful in flight, heading straight for an active patch of many Gannets and some Great Shearwaters. I have seen a high number of large skuas, (especially in Iceland, off the US West Coast, off Massachusetts, and in the GOM), and this bird is the "lightest" most colorful large skua I have seen.
- Skua #2 was strikingly different from the typical South Polar Skua (we got a good look at one typical colorless South Polar Skua, skua #3, 25 minutes later, at 8:51-55am, and the difference between the two skuas (#2 vs #3) was striking to all observers, especially regarding the overall color of the birds -- we had a text-book A-vs-B comparison, in the same front-right quadrant, in the same lighting, in the same flying orientations).
- Dorsal surfaces of skua #2 were dark brown not black/gray/colorless, with some areas of lighter golden brown (see inner secondaries on top photo), and some unevenness/streaks with golden tints on the back (hinted at in photos 2 and 3 and 5 in the left scapulars). Chest and belly were light-brown cinnamon-colored (with a bit of reddish tint, not showing in the photos), flashing large white wing patches, broad wings, large and chunky with short tail, seen well from multiple angles and photographed with backlight in clear bright direct colorless morning sunlight. Mantle and scapular dorsal surfaces darker than undersides, but still brownish (see first photo below), and somewhat streaked, not colorless uniform dark gray, as the other skua was. A very light warm colored skua.
- SIMILAR BIRDS: The other possibility is that this #2 is a South Polar Skua adult intermediate morph (#197b in Peter Harrison's book -- see his famous skua plate 54 below), but the non-uniform streaked back argues against that, as does the warmish tint of the breast, flanks and belly.
First, this Norway video shows pretty much what our bird #2 looked like, although this is an adult and our bird probably was not...
(1) STORLABB Great Skua (Stercorarius skua) Klipp - 32 - YouTube
and for comparing still photos, here is what Audubon Guide to North American Birds (Great Skua | Audubon Field Guide) shows as a Great Skua:
and now here following are our actual photographs (the first 4 thanks to Richard Hodgkins), which certainly look SIMILAR to the Audubon photo above (note that we got a much BETTER and closer look at this bird through binoculars as it flew in front of the ship and flew right/north, eventually leading to these distant photos, i.e., these photos ALONE may not be conclusive to ID Great Skua, but along with the binocular views we saw, in combination they are both sufficient)...
Birds observed in the 2 harbors were not included in this list.
Marine mammals (and butterflies), thanks to the expertise of Charles Avenengo....
Monarch butterfly 10, 0
Painted lady butterfly 1, 0
OTHER TRIP INFORMATION:
Over the last 5+ years we have made numerous crossings along this route (plus crossings from Bar Harbor in the 1960s-1970s), and almost all of the skuas we have found were in the area of the yellow oval, including on this trip on September 30th. This blue track is our 6-hour 212-mile route on 2017 Sept 30 from Yarmouth NS (on the right side) to Portland ME (and the green circles are 15-mile diameter Christmas Bird Count circles)...
Our team...Richard, Peg, Charles, Eduardo, Bill, Joe and Tom...
There is an open area like this on both sides of the ship, about 30 feet above water level. This is the starboard/right side. On Saturday Sept.30th most birds were viewed in the front right quadrant (on north side of ship, with backlight), mostly between "midnight and 4o'clock" using the clock metaphor for the angle of view. The first skuas were observed in this quadrant, mostly between "midnight and 3o'clock". The skua #4 was observed more distantly, starting at 4o'clock and continuing around the back to 8o'clock, at high altitude (several hundred feet), seemingly trailing the ship, following a behavior I had observed previously with large skuas, perhaps gaining altitude to look many miles around for a grouping of birds they could harass.
Two of our several big-guns onboard: Eduardo (600mm Canon) and Richard (500mm Nikon)...
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| Note the deep powerful wingstroke & the golden, cinnamon brownish tint on the upper wing surfaces (right secondaries). |
The following photo thanks to Bill Asteriades:
And for comparison, here are two Great Skuas photographed by Michael J. Good on Sept.12, 2015 in the Gulf of Maine. Note the similarity of plumages to our bird above, which was in strong bright sunlight and made it look lighter (click on image to expand it, and then press ESC key to return). The left bird shows the dark cap, the protruding head and neck, the broad wings and bulky body, the short wide tail, the molting wing, including perhaps a slightly short P10 growing in.
RESEARCH IN THE KITCHEN!
For those of us who want to be sure what "cinnamon" and "ginger" should really mean, I photographed a jar of cinnamon from my kitchen(!) and this resulting photograph lost a significant amount of the darker brown and almost red tint of actual cinnamon in the jar. This warmer brown must be a difficult color for digital photo sensors to capture and reproduce. Similarly the skua photos above lost a significant amount of the warm brown and almost red tint we actually saw in the field! So the color on the skuas above in reality was warmer than those colors shown in these skua photos. Could any South Polar Skua have those warm colors (significantly warmer than the colors shown in our 5 photos above)?
This photo of the same cinnamon was closer to the color of our bird (that's real ginger on the left)...
FIVE MORE INTERESTING PHOTOS -- skua #5 :
Here are two photos (taken at LAT 43.691618 LON -67.620683 around 9:37am EDT = 13:37 GMT, on Sept.30th 2017, from right/starboard side of ship) taken by photographer Eduardo del Solar in the 1500 shots he took on Sept.30th (see many of his other 9/30 photos at: Gulf of Maine, CAT Ferry ). This is clearly a large skua, with its broad wings, bulky short body relative to wings, short tail, and its bright white flashes visible on upper surfaces of wings, in the outer primaries and the coverts near the inner primaries.
Regarding the apparent dark gap in the white area which should span the primaries, the white showing in the outer wing coverts (middle of the wing) suggests active molt in the corresponding feathers at that point, namely the inner primaries (inner primaries are replaced early in the full molt cycle, so this bird breeds in the northern hemisphere). This active molt would synchronize with the molt timing of a greater than one-year-old Great Skua. The color of this bird also suggests Great Skua. This is very probably a Great Skua... molting its inner primaries...
This is the same one bird, with five progressively sharper photos...
And then Bill Asteriades found a 3 more photos of this same bird, but with autofocus working better...
Notice the back! The golden streaks.... a Great Skua "trademark"...
Some potentially useful references include:
Great Skua (Catharacta skua) videos, photos and sound recordings.
And for comparison, here are two Great Skuas photographed by Michael J. Good on Sept.12, 2015 in the Gulf of Maine. Note the similarity of plumages to our bird above, which was in strong bright sunlight and made it look lighter (click on image to expand it, and then press ESC key to return). The left bird shows the dark cap, the protruding head and neck, the broad wings and bulky body, the short wide tail, the molting wing, including perhaps a slightly short P10 growing in.
RESEARCH IN THE KITCHEN!
For those of us who want to be sure what "cinnamon" and "ginger" should really mean, I photographed a jar of cinnamon from my kitchen(!) and this resulting photograph lost a significant amount of the darker brown and almost red tint of actual cinnamon in the jar. This warmer brown must be a difficult color for digital photo sensors to capture and reproduce. Similarly the skua photos above lost a significant amount of the warm brown and almost red tint we actually saw in the field! So the color on the skuas above in reality was warmer than those colors shown in these skua photos. Could any South Polar Skua have those warm colors (significantly warmer than the colors shown in our 5 photos above)?
This photo of the same cinnamon was closer to the color of our bird (that's real ginger on the left)...
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| This plate is from page 130 of Peter Harrison's landmark 1983 book, "Seabirds: An Identification Guide". Click on image to expand. Press ESC key to return. |
FIVE MORE INTERESTING PHOTOS -- skua #5 :
Here are two photos (taken at LAT 43.691618 LON -67.620683 around 9:37am EDT = 13:37 GMT, on Sept.30th 2017, from right/starboard side of ship) taken by photographer Eduardo del Solar in the 1500 shots he took on Sept.30th (see many of his other 9/30 photos at: Gulf of Maine, CAT Ferry ). This is clearly a large skua, with its broad wings, bulky short body relative to wings, short tail, and its bright white flashes visible on upper surfaces of wings, in the outer primaries and the coverts near the inner primaries.
Regarding the apparent dark gap in the white area which should span the primaries, the white showing in the outer wing coverts (middle of the wing) suggests active molt in the corresponding feathers at that point, namely the inner primaries (inner primaries are replaced early in the full molt cycle, so this bird breeds in the northern hemisphere). This active molt would synchronize with the molt timing of a greater than one-year-old Great Skua. The color of this bird also suggests Great Skua. This is very probably a Great Skua... molting its inner primaries...
This is the same one bird, with five progressively sharper photos...
And then Bill Asteriades found a 3 more photos of this same bird, but with autofocus working better...
Notice the back! The golden streaks.... a Great Skua "trademark"...
Some potentially useful references include:
Great Skua (Catharacta skua) videos, photos and sound recordings.
South Polar Skuas - Bullies of the Oceans - with Tom Johnson | BirdNote
South polar skua videos, photos and facts - Stercorarius maccormicki | Arkive <<
South Polar skua | New Zealand Birds Online
South polar skua - Wikipedia
Catharacta maccormicki (South Polar Skua)
South Polar Skua
Skuas and Jaegers - Klaus Malling Olsen - Google Books
Skuas and Jaegers: Klaus Malling Olsen, Hans Larsson: 9781408189078: Amazon.com: Books
South Polar Skuas
Memorandum to:
Microsoft Word - Stercorarius maccormicki NSW 2012.doc
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America - Paul Lehman
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America
BROWN SKUA (Catharacta antarctica)
Brown Skua in North America
Discussion Paper Sydney Skua 2006.pdf
South polar skua videos, photos and facts - Stercorarius maccormicki | Arkive <<
South Polar skua | New Zealand Birds Online
South polar skua - Wikipedia
Catharacta maccormicki (South Polar Skua)
South Polar Skua
Skuas and Jaegers - Klaus Malling Olsen - Google Books
Skuas and Jaegers: Klaus Malling Olsen, Hans Larsson: 9781408189078: Amazon.com: Books
South Polar Skuas
Memorandum to:
Microsoft Word - Stercorarius maccormicki NSW 2012.doc
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America - Paul Lehman
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America
BROWN SKUA (Catharacta antarctica)
Brown Skua in North America
Discussion Paper Sydney Skua 2006.pdf
Click on this image to enlarge; then press ESC key to return...
The "large skuas" are numbers 1-4. The "jaegers" are numbers 5-7 (where Parasitic Jaeger is 6)...
The "large skuas" are numbers 1-4. The "jaegers" are numbers 5-7 (where Parasitic Jaeger is 6)...
SKUAS SEEN BY OTHER NEARBY TRIPS:
This was not our trip, but a nearby trip, 50 miles away, four days later, reporting two skua species...
This was not our trip, but a nearby trip, 50 miles away, four days later, reporting two skua species...
eBIRD CHECKLISTS FROM OUR 9/30/2017 TRIP:
Nova Scotian waters (from 809am ADT = 709am EDT):
eBird Checklist – Portland, Maine - Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Ferry (NS waters), Nova Scotia – Sat Sep 30, 2017 – 24 species (+4 other taxa)
Maine waters (from 1010am ADT = 910am EDT):
eBird Checklist – Ferry Trip - Yarmouth, NS to Portland, ME, Maine – Sat Sep 30, 2017 – 22 species (+3 other taxa)
LIST OF SPECIES WE SAW (with numbers for September 29 & 30) :
Nova Scotian waters (from 809am ADT = 709am EDT):
eBird Checklist – Portland, Maine - Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Ferry (NS waters), Nova Scotia – Sat Sep 30, 2017 – 24 species (+4 other taxa)
Maine waters (from 1010am ADT = 910am EDT):
eBird Checklist – Ferry Trip - Yarmouth, NS to Portland, ME, Maine – Sat Sep 30, 2017 – 22 species (+3 other taxa)
LIST OF SPECIES WE SAW (with numbers for September 29 & 30) :
- #1: Skua spp 0, 1 Seen around 8:26am EDT (9:26am ADT). Too distant to ID species.
- #2: Great Skua [Stercorarius skua] (probably Great rather than South Polar or other) 0, 1
- #3: South Polar Skua [Stercorarius maccormicki, adult dark morph] 0, 1 . ( South Polar Skua Internet Bird Collection and South Polar Skua | Audubon Field Guide and South Polar Skua ) Seen at 8:51-55am EDT. An extremely dark gray to seemingly blackish individual (no warm coloration, very unlike the first skua above), uniformly dark gray colorless on upper wing surfaces (the back had no speckling, scalloping, mottling, etc), lighter neck and head, flashing large white wing patches, broad wings, large & chunky with short tail. See the photo below, taken after the bird had flown some distance away from us. Unlike the dark-morph Pomarine Jaeger seen a bit later at 10:46am (which was distinctly smaller than the South Polar Skua, the POJA had a comparatively more slender chest and silhouette, longer tail-section, and much less white flash in its wings).
- #4: Skua spp 0, 1 Seen around 9:10-9:15am EDT mostly trailing the ship at a distance, mostly high at about two hundred feet, but no good photos of this bird. White wing flashes distinguishable through 10x42L image stabilized binoculars.
- #5: Great Skua [Stercorarius skua] (probably Great rather than South Polar or other) 0, 1
- dark Pomarine Jaeger 0, 1 (at 10:46am EDT).
- Pomarine Jaeger 1, 2
- Parasitic Jaeger 3, 6
- Jaeger spp 3, 1
- Wilson's Storm-petrel 0, 1
- Leach's Storm-petrel 0, 2
- Red Phalarope 1, 2
- Phalarope spp 3, 2
- Great Shearwater 30, 150
- Cory's Shearwater 12, 5
- Manx Shearwater 2, 2
- Sooty Shearwater 0, 2
- Northern Fulmar 1, 20
- Black-legged Kittiwake 3, 5
- Bonaparte's Gull 3, 0
- Great Black Backed Gull 5, 12
- Herring Gull 5, 10
- Gull Spp 10, 50
- Terns 0, 0
- Alcid species 2, 0
- Razorbill 1, 0
- Common Loon 3, 15
- Red-throated Loon 0, 1
- Northern Gannett 250, 300
- White winged Scorer 0, 18
- Surf Scoter 0, 5
- Common Eider 1, 6
- DC Cormorant 16, 3
- Canada Goose 0, 22
- Osprey 1, 0
- Kestrel 0, 1
Birds observed in the 2 harbors were not included in this list.
Marine mammals (and butterflies), thanks to the expertise of Charles Avenengo....
- Finback whale 3, 5
- Atlantic white-sided dolphin 12, 20 (plus one expired dolphin floating on return trip. Fulmars in close company)
- Harbor porpoise 3, 1
- Gray seal 0, 4 (in Yarmouth harbor)
- Harbor seal 0, 2 (in Portland harbor)
Monarch butterfly 10, 0
Painted lady butterfly 1, 0
OTHER TRIP INFORMATION:
Over the last 5+ years we have made numerous crossings along this route (plus crossings from Bar Harbor in the 1960s-1970s), and almost all of the skuas we have found were in the area of the yellow oval, including on this trip on September 30th. This blue track is our 6-hour 212-mile route on 2017 Sept 30 from Yarmouth NS (on the right side) to Portland ME (and the green circles are 15-mile diameter Christmas Bird Count circles)...
Our team...Richard, Peg, Charles, Eduardo, Bill, Joe and Tom...
There is an open area like this on both sides of the ship, about 30 feet above water level. This is the starboard/right side. On Saturday Sept.30th most birds were viewed in the front right quadrant (on north side of ship, with backlight), mostly between "midnight and 4o'clock" using the clock metaphor for the angle of view. The first skuas were observed in this quadrant, mostly between "midnight and 3o'clock". The skua #4 was observed more distantly, starting at 4o'clock and continuing around the back to 8o'clock, at high altitude (several hundred feet), seemingly trailing the ship, following a behavior I had observed previously with large skuas, perhaps gaining altitude to look many miles around for a grouping of birds they could harass.
Two of our several big-guns onboard: Eduardo (600mm Canon) and Richard (500mm Nikon)...
