Back on the boat - Staithes Pelagic, 7th Sep '26

Well, that was a joy. Longer term readers will know I've been leading our YCN Seabird and Whale Adventures out of Staithes, North Yorkshire for many years now; until relatively recently, that meant many trips per season between July and the end of September. In recent years, however, our extended summer holidays in the US have lengthened, and this year was a full six weeks - meaning I have to sacrifice many of the available sailings and hope for clement conditions for when I return.

This year is particularly awkward for leading the boat trips, not only for the US excursion, but also a big chunk of September in Scotland for our School of Birding Deep Dives (more on that to follow); throw in the vagaries of the weather (and inevitable cancellations) into the mix, and it's one or two at best this season.

With that in mind - and with Rich having a really productive season on the boat so far this year (see here) - I couldn't wait to climb down the ladder for today's adventure.

With a lovely team on board (in more ways than one - full of enthusiasm and fully engaged!), we set out of the harbour and into a fairly bumpy North Sea - and it took us less than four minutes to clock our first Minke, right by the side of the boat.....

... and for the next five hours, we wandered around within a six mile radius, enjoying lots of whales; better still, many were close-up, by the boat, and for extended periods, which is such a privilege and a joy to share with our clients.

As well as the whales, there were plenty of birds to enjoy - nothing too extraordinary, but three juvenile Caspian Gulls, hundreds of terns, some lovely Little Gulls, a Peregrine hunting a passing Teal flock way offshore, Manxies, plenty of Arctic Skuas, Puffins among many auks, two Snipe low over the waves and inland from far out, Scoters on the move and much more.

Arctic Skua (above), Puffin (below)

Peregrine (above), Little Gulls (below)

Guillemot (above), Caspian Gull (below)

Tubenoses - Stellwagen Bank, Aug '26

With these trips being commercial whale-watching exercises (and therefore not concerned with avian distractions), they require a certain patience as a birder on board; whatever you see, you'll find yourself, and it may be even more frustratingly brief than a dedicated seabirding pelagic...

Wilson's Storm-petrels

.. thus, I was the one on my feet, buzzing around the deck for most of the time, much to the bemusement of the majority of comfortably seated fellow passengers (although a few were interested and it was nice to talk to various random friendly faces).

Pretty much all the birding highlights involved tubenoses, and pretty much all of those were Wilson's Storm-petrels - after being more than happy with fifteen of them on our boast trip off Maine (see here), I clearly wasn't prepared for the sheer abundance of these fabulous little sea-sprites. Full eBird checklist here.

Great and Cory's Shearwaters

Cory's with Humpback (above), flocks of Wilson's (below)

Wilson's and Humpbacks

Great and Cory's Shearwaters

Humpbacks and more - Stellwagen Bank, Aug '26

 

Fortunately for us, we had another opportunity to jump on a whale-watching trip our of Gloucester, on the North-east coast of Mass, after a truly wonderful one when we were over last summer (see here). Three weeks later than last years', the species dynamic and variety were significantly different, but just as entertaining....

 

I'll deal with the birds in the next post, but for cetaceans, it was very different - no Fin Whales or dolphins this time, but no fewer than 25 Humpbacks - and oh boy, what a show....

 

To say they were entertaining would be the understatement of the decade, and we had hours of fun watching them doing pretty much everything a Humpback can. We had multiple, co-ordinated full breaches from up to five whales together; many rolls, tail flips and smashes;

...prolonged sessions of co-operative interactions - including pec-slapping, slow-rolling and loud trumpeting! - right by the boat, completely unconcerned (or inspired?) by our presence.

 

We eventually had to leave them all to it, but what a performance - certainly the most prolonged, close-up and entertaining I've ever seen from Humpbacks.

We also had a couple of Minkes, and two close sightings of Ocean Sunfish (or Mola Molas as they're called over there - their scientific name and a much cooler monicker) - but it was the Humpbacks who more than stole the show.

Huge thanks to brother-in-law Ned for the better of these photos - nice work indeed ;-)