Birding Alaska

Short-tailed Shearwater Puffinus tenuirostris, Bering Sea, 25 September 2009.

Pretty slow birding from the NOAA Ship Miller Freeman today.  The ship’s mission during this cruise is to retrieve and replace oceanographic moorings in the Bering Sea and conduct physical oceanographic studies.  We left Dutch Harbor two days ago and we’ll be out until October 13th.  I’m riding along as a seabird observer and I spent some time today observing Short-tailed Shearwaters while the crew worked on a couple oceanographic moorings.  Here are a few photos to improve the previous post on shearwater ID from April. Coincidentally, these recent photos were taken in the exact spot as those I took in April.