September 4-7, 2003
This trip was our first to take place in late summer/early fall, and as such was very much an exploratory effort. We decided to take three days and search the area around the Cortez Bank, which lies 110 miles due west of San Diego, California, and then continue out into deeper water to the south and west. While the absolute number of birds wasn’t high, we did get two extraordinary sightings (Bulwer's Petrel and Red-tailed Tropicbird), as well as good looks at some of the more expected late-summer species.

SPECIES	4th	5th	6th		Totals
Black-footed Albatross	0	0	1		1
Bulwer's Petrel	1	0	0		1
Black-vented Shearwater	1	0	0		1
Sooty Shearwater	3	0	0		3
Pink-footed Shearwater	45	2	0		50
Shearwater sp.	0	0	1		1
Leach's Storm-petrel	0	50	125		175
Black Storm-petrel	40	8	8		56
Least Storm-petrel	2	0	2		4
Red-billed Tropicbird	0	4	6		10
Red-tailed Tropicbird	0	0	1		1
Brown Pelican	1	0	0		1
Red-necked Phalarope	20	20	0		40
Red Phalarope	8	80	60		148
Least Sandpiper	0	1	0		1
Western Gull	100	80	5		185
Heermann's Gull	10	0	0		10
Sabine's Gull	0	3	1		4
Whimbrel	8	0	0		8
Forster's Tern	1	0	0		1
Common Tern	100	1	0		101
Arctic Tern	12	0	0		12
Royal Tern	10	0	0		10
Elegant Tern	25	0	0		25
Long-tailed Jaeger	1	3	1		5
Parasitic Jaeger	8	1	0		9
Pomarine Jaeger	15	4	1		20
Vaux's Swift	0	0	1		1
Others
Blue Whale	6	2	0		8
Sperm Whale	2	0	0		2
Baird's Beaked Whale	0	20	0		20
Long-beaked Common Dolphin	60	0	0		60
Short-beaked Common Dolphin	200	0	0		200
Harbor Seal	1	0	0		1
Mako Shark	1	0	0		1
Blue Shark	0	1	0		1
Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish)	20	30	0		50
Albacore	0	2	2		4
Shipjack Tuna	0	2	12		14
Yellowtail	0	0	1		1