February Program – Brian Patteson on Seabirding

Our February program will be a Zoom program, because of our unpredictable February weather. It will start at 7:00 p.m. on February 7, and run about an hour and a half.

To join the Zoom program, please follow this link:

Topic: February Meeting – Brian Patteson
Time: Feb 7, 2024 07:00 PM Eastern Time

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/99245429802

Meeting ID: 992 4542 9802

Our featured speaker for the February program will be Brian Patteson of “Seabirding”, out ot Hatteras, North Carolina. Audubon is excited to have one of the premier Pelagic Birding Outfitters on the East Coast. Brian will walk us through the logistics, the location, the boat, the cruise, identification, “what to bring”,  and the many unique birds and species (whales, sea turtles) one is likely to find on either a summer trip or a winter trip.

Several of us on the Audubon Board have taken these cruises – it is a great birding experience!

Brian is originally from Central Virginia near the Blue Ridge Mountains,  but he started organizing pelagic trips in the late 80s. By the mid 90s pelagic birding off the Outer Banks of NC was becoming pretty popular and he decided to move there and split his time between running birding trips and charter fishing, something he had wanted to do a few years earlier but didn’t have the connections to get started in. He worked as a deckhand on several boats until 2005, when he decided to start a charter business running his own vessel, and purchased a boat that could comfortably carry a couple dozen people offshore. Since 2006, he has run over 700 birding trips on his own vessels with the help of Kate Sutherland, who has worked with him since spring of 2000, and several guest leaders including some of the world’s top guides. He has also led a few birding groups on Antarctic cruises for VENT, and Kate is currently down there now working for Heritage Expeditions.