Two Decades of Extreme Pelagic Birding

White-faced Storm-Petrels are charismatic little birds that bounce “kangaroo style” on waters at the shelf edge in late summer. All photographs by the author unless otherwise indicated.

At some point people started calling the Brookline Bird Club (BBC) pelagic trips “Extreme Pelagics.” The name is accurate enough. At up to 100 miles offshore, the trips to the edge of the continental shelf are long, the seas can be grueling, and the sun is often unyielding. Plus, the bunk house is below deck, dark, cramped, and honestly a bit smelly. Many a birder has sworn to never go below deck again. Of course, the birding can be extreme as well. There is always a chance for a rarity, and the target birds are some of the most sought after in the American Birding Association Area (North America). Now ongoing for more than 20 years, the BBC Extreme Pelagic trips draw birders from all over the country and have given hundreds a unique opportunity to explore the offshore waters of Massachusetts.

I suspect the Extreme name was hyperbolic marketing by the founding leader of these trips, Ida Giriunas. Ida was a force of nature. She led the pelagic program for the BBC from 2004 until she passed away in 2019. She persuaded a fishing captain to run trips for a bunch of birders. The boat was the Helen H out of Hyannis, Massachusetts. At a hundred feet long, this party fishing boat is large enough and fast enough to carry 50 birders out to the edge of the continental shelf for an overnight trip. The captain, Joe Huckemeyer, although not initially a birder, has a real love of the ocean, and his interest in birding has increased over the years. Some years ago he sent a a photo with a text, “Hey, this bird looks a little different.” That sighting turned out to be the first Massachusetts record of a Masked Booby.