The Hatteras Special
Way back in January, I had my first chance to go on a proper pelagic birding trip out of Maryland. As it turns out, winter pelagic birding is mostly getting bounced around on high seas while being splashed by freezing water and stray fish guts, interspersed with brief moments of birding. Still, between the community aspect and the ever-present chance of seeing some truly rare birds that would virtually never be seen from land, it was easy to understand why pelagics are addictive for so many people. On that trip, I ran into fellow DC birders Andy and Vikas, and although our experiences at sea were... mixed, we all agreed that this was the sort of thing we wanted to do again, possibly at a time of year when we'd be able to feel our extremities by the end of the trip. The obvious choice for this was to do a Seabirding pelagic out of Cape Hatteras, and we signed up for a trip on May 19, one of the last springtime trips that still had enough vacancy for the three of us. C...