Happy Holidays!
Happy Holiday from Team Searcher! Wishing you and your family a whale of a holiday. 
Whale, would you look at that!
We were send these beautiful mask by Betsy Gillingham. 
It makes wearing a mask that much more fun. We may not be back to normal but with beautiful thing like this it can certainly life our spirits. Thank you so much Betsy.
NEW 3-day Pelagic Birding Tour 2021
Photo by Alisa Schulman-Janiger
Photo by Alisa Schulman-Janiger
It’s a great time to get offshore to deep-water pelagic zones to search out exciting seabirds such as Cook’s Petrels, Scripps’ Murrelets, Black-footed and Laysan Albatross; Black, Leach’s and Ashy Storm-petrels; Brown and other Boobies; South Polar Skua; Pomarine, Parasitic, and Long-tailed Jaegers; and Arctic Terns. Plus we’ll have a long list of usual species found in our waters, often gathering around underwater banks, mounts, and canyons. This trip is limited to ABA-waters, including coverage of the southern-most areas of it.
Giving Tuesday!
This is an incredible photo of a gray whale. Happy #GivingTuesday. In case you don’t know or are unaware of Giving Tuesday, often stylized as #GivingTuesday for the purposes of activism, refers to the Tuesday after U.S. Thanksgiving in the United States. It is a movement to create an international day of charitable giving at the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season.
On this #GivingTuesday we are giving back to a few of our favorite foundations and reacher groups. Every little bit can go a long way. If you want to donate here are some we chose to donate to this #GivingTuesday.
Foundations and non-profits:
For Whale Sharks
For Vaquita
For Gray Whales
Pelagic Birding Trip
Searcher Natural History Tours’ annual 5-day Labor Day pelagic birding trip sailed Sept 7-11, 2020. Passengers and leaders surveyed deep-water areas from the southwestern limits of the ABA, north to the Channel Islands, and west to the Rodriguez Dome and San Juan Seamount, offshore up to 200 miles.
Highlight sightings included Laysan albatross; Guadalupe, Scripps, and Craveri’s murrelets (in the same day!); Sabine’s gull; Nazca and Blue-footed boobies; South Polar skua; Cook’s petrel; and a flock of Buller’s shearwaters. Over 100 species were observed and photographed.
Join us in 2021! There’s a few spots still open so you can reserve your spot at the rail. Meanwhile, enjoy our highlights video!
link to 2021 trip: 2021 Pelagic Birding Tour
2020 Pelagic Birding Tour Sep 7-11
Hello all,
It’s been excellent day with plenty of things to look at including storm petrels, shearwaters, and albatrosses including at least 20 black-footed and the highlight of the day: a laysan albatross! Lots of people added this bird to their life list.
We spent quite a bit of time on the Cortez Bank with albatrossess next to the boat. And then had a surprise visit from an immature Nazca booby too. Great weather again with a little breeze this afternoon. Headed home tonight after a very successful trip!
Captain Art and Team Searcher
2020 Pelagic Birding Tour Sep 7-11
Hello all,
We had a great day today and several people added to their life list! Passenger Ben had a birthday today and added four birds to his life list.
We saw all three possible murrelets today: Craveri’s, Scripps’s and Guadalupe. That was a first for us on this annual trip!
The weather was calm, and we had good looks at blue whales and a distant look at fin whales. Common dolphin showed up as well.
Captain Art and Team Searcher
2020 Pelagic Birding Tour Sep 7-11
Hello all,
We started our day at Santa Barbara Island where a brown booby colony has established. Recently a blue footed booby has joined the colony, so this is the first time that we have seen a blue-footed booby on our Southern California pelagic tours, which is significant. There is speculation that there might be breeding between the brown and blue-footed boobies.
After spending time viewing the boobies, we headed west towards a temperature change with hopes of some bird life there. There were shearwaters, storm petrels, jaegers ,terns and an occasional murrelet. We also found common dolphins, a few bottlenose dolphins, and a single humpback whale.
We are headed to San Miguel Island to spend the night and then head out into deep water tomorrow.
Captain Art and Team Searcher
Booby colony on a rock at Santa Barbara Island.
2020 Pelagic Birding Tour Sep 7-11
Hello all,
We departed on our annual pelagic birding trip today. We are headed west for the afternoon.
We saw loads of black-vented shearwaters on the 9-mile bank. And we went through an area of black storm petrels with an occasional least storm petrel. We also listed pomarine jaegers, Sabine’s gulls, and masked and brown boobies.
We are continuing west tonight and starting at Santa Barbara island hoping for a look at the brown booby colony.
Enjoying great weather!
Captain Art and Team Searcher
We are always grateful for Tom Blackman’s photos in our birding blog posts, including this one!
Mystery Monday Revealed
Mystery Monday revealed! The answer is:
Sperm Whale
📷 by Sally W.
📷 by Mike W.
Paul Jones shared this sighting report from our last 2020 tour. Check out the recorded underwater vocalizations in the video below!
“On March 18 aboard Searcher we found a group of about 20 sperm whales just east Isla Espiritu Santo in the Gulf of California. We had 20 animals that surfaced very near Searcher in 5-7 smaller groups. One whale swam straight toward Searcher affording a great view of its asymmetric blowhole before it fluked up and dove. Others bobbed at the surface for long periods as they recharged their muscles with oxygen, providing excellent opportunities for passengers to take photos of these impressive, deep-diving whales.”
https://youtu.be/2nReXeB39Zc
