Pelagic Birding Trip Report Sept. 5-9, 2011
Sept 5-9, 2011 * SEARCHER * San Diego/Channel Islands/Shelf Edge: White-chinned Petrel, 12 Red-billed Tropicbirds
(San Diego) The 95-foot live-aboard Searcher departed San Diego’s Fisherman’s Landing on a sunny, warm Labor Day afternoon, bound for a 5-day pelagic expedition through the Channel Islands, over deep water canyons and along the continental shelf-edge. We headed to the Nine Mile Bank and worked our way slowly north in a zigzag fashion, following the life zones as we found them until the sunset as we were west of Oceanside.
New 2012 trips!
We’ve added our 2.5 day Memorial Day Weekend trip for May 26-28 and our 5-day Pelagic Birding trip for Sep 3-7 onto the web site. Ready for bookings!
Killer whale feeding event on 1 November
Friends and colleagues from Fishermans’ Landing were finishing up a local fishing trip and encountered a large pod of orcas who were attacking and feeding on a fin whale. This took place just offshore San Diego near the Los Coronados islands. This footage was taken by Rick Maxa, who was joined by Carl Schmidt and Doug Kern. We thank them for passing on the footage so we could get it to the experts. This pod is probably the same pod that Capt Art encountered on a trip two years ago coming home from Isla Guadalupe on a shark diving trip. There is a very distinctive juvenile with a scarred area where it’s dorsal fin WAS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXymfn6KOwE&feature=related
The orcas are attacking the fin whale in this footage. (Whale’s blow is high and slow)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSwmTPYp38g&feature=related
Great footage of a curious juvenile after the attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoYoF8z8pw&feature=related
After the 2-hour event, the fishermen drove away and a large orca said his own goodbye!
A book recommendation
Sue and Larry Schott from Ontario, Canada, wrote to recommend a book about Laguna San Ignacio. They read it in preparation for their February, 2012 tour to that same spot!
“We came across an excellent book which you may already know about. It is called ‘Whales Touching the Mystery’ by Doug Thomson. It is primarily about the gray whales, the history and the current ‘keepers of the lagoon.’ I am reading it for the second time. It is one of the books that intrigued us initially on San Ignacio Lagoon and being able to get close encouters with the gray whales. It is an excellent read for anyone doing your whale watching tour.”
(photo by Chef Charles Howell from Laguna San Ignacio)
April in Baja!
Our April 7-18, 2012 tour is a confirmed departure! Ready to go? Besides the great weather and whales in April, there are some terrific prices on the Cabo San Lucas to San Diego flight for your return home. Email today and we’ll save you a spot.
Terry H’s latest video release
Pelagic birding marketing guru, leader, chummer and moviemaker has released a “trailer” for the upcoming white-chinned petrel movie. Enjoy it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDathWSjSxo
Pelagic Birding Trip: Day 3
Today was a good day for seabirds and for whales. We saw sperm whales, blue whales, fin whales, Baird’s beaked whales and Pacific white-sided and common dolphins.
We added lots of shearwaters to our list and had a really good look at three south polar skuas flying around the boat. The passengers were complaining that the birds were too close and they couldn’t get a good picture!
Photo of Black-footed albatross by Tim Worfolk
