BAMFIED PELAGIC TRIP

Pink-footed Shearwater: Mike Ashbee Photo.

Hey guys,

After 5 years in Bamfield we moved out to Newfoundland, but we still love getting your email updates!
Anyway, we are coming home for May, and hoping to keep our tradition of a mid-May pelagic trip out of Barkley Sound going. Last year we had a bit more local interest that usual and we had a great day in a charter fishing boat we rented from our friend and took out to Swiftsure Bank, La Perouse Bank and beyond.

Highlights included drifting among a group of over a hundred of humpbacks with thousands of Sooty Shearwaters streaming by, tens of thousands of migrating phalaropes, Sooty, Short-tailed and Pink-footed shearwater, Tufted Puffin, Cassin's and Rhinoceros Auklet. etc....Other years we have seen Buller's and Flesh-footed Shearwater, Arctic Tern, Northern Fulmar, flocks of Sabine's Gulls, Ancient Murrelet, Brown Pelican and other great birds.

Obviously the more people, the cheaper the individual cost, and ultimately, the larger the boat that can be chartered, and the further it is possible to go!
I was wondering if you would be willing to post an 'ad' to let interested birders know that they could get in touch with me if they would like to participate in something like that. Basically a FULL day on the water in a smaller boat that would travel out to the La Perouse Bank, Barkely Canyon area or somthing similar. Target species would be albatrosses and other deep water seabirds. Last year the cost worked out to around $140 per person all in, and hopefully that might even come down with more people, on the other hand, if there is interest in chartering a larger faster boat, the cost could be slightly higher. The cost of the trip is strictly to cover charter and fuel, I am not making any profit on this at all - I just want to see good birds with good people!

The trip would leave from Bamfield in the morning on a day with good weather and calm seas sometimes between May 13-16 or so.
People can email me at: mark.maftei@gmail.com for details or more info.

If you can spread the word, it would be much appreciated!
Let me know what you think.
-Mark Maftei

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Mark Maftei
Department of Biology,
Memorial University,
St, John's, Newfoundland
709 864 8141