Great day today on a pelagic birding trip. I got a few more birds for my photographic life list, and got to look at what at first glance appeared to be a bunch of seagulls, but at second glance I realized they were a bunch of seagulls. But it was a very cool trip. If you didn't GOYB, here is what you missed:
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| As the boat was leaving from Jacksonville, we had to get up at 3:00 am for the trip. HFC David looks scary at 3 a.m. |
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| David looks much less scary after a good breakfast and some daylight. |
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| One of the first birds we saw was a Parasitic Jaeger. This was a life bird for me. |
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| I didn't realize I got this life bird until I downloaded the pictures - it's a Red Phalarope. |
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| Something about this seemed cute - it's dolpins playing in front of the greenpeace boat. Given the name of their boat, I was a little afraid they might try to board our boat and steal our snacks. |
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| This is a Common Loon. |
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| This is a Northern Gannet |
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| After an unfortunate incident involving my breakfast and sea sickness, I decided to stay close to the back of the boat by the railing. It actually turned out pretty good cause I got some cool gull shots. This is a Herring Gull, which is new to my photographic life list. |
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| Another shot of the Herring Gull. |
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| A Laughing Gull. These always confuse me. They change their outfits more often than a starlet on oscar night. |
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| A bunch of Laughing Gulls flying towards me. I thought this picture was cool. |
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| Another Laughing Gull. |
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| A Ring Billed Gull. I like this gull because he is what his name says, you can clearly see the ring on his bill. |
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| The Herring Gull again. I like this shot cause you can clearly see his pink feet and orange bill, which in my mind differentiate him from the ring billed, which has yellow feet. |
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| The gull flapping his wings in the center of the picture is an Iceland Gull. This was a lifer for me and a few other people on the boat. |
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Me and HFC David. I'm looking a little less green here, but still was pretty glad to be home tonight.
But, despite the little incident with sea sickness, it was a great trip. Between yesterday and today I added 4 new life birds. Remember, you can look at my pictures and think about building your life list, or you can GOYB and come out with me and do it!
Hope to see you on a walk soon!
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