Pelagic Birding Trip Sightings List – September 2014

1-Sep 2-Sep 3-Sep 4-Sep
Species Name
Cinnamon Teal – Anas cyanoptera 2
Black-footed Albatross – Phoebastria nigripes 5 1 17
Northern Fulmar – Fulmarus glacialis 1 1 1
Pink-footed Shearwater – Puffinus creatopus 6 160 55 105
Buller’s Shearwater – Puffinus bulleri 8
Sooty Shearwater – Puffinus griseus 2 3
Black-vented Shearwater – Puffinus opisthomelas 382 3 2,005
Leach’s Storm-Petrel – Oceanodroma leucorhoa 1 4 110 125
Ashy Storm-Petrel – Oceanodroma homochroa 25 12 6
Black Storm-Petrel – Oceanodroma melania 179 378 174 89
Least Storm-Petrel – Oceanodroma microsoma 10 3
Red-billed Tropicbird – Phaethon aethereus 10 1
Brown Booby – Sula leucogaster 1 1 1
Brandt’s Cormorant – Phalacrocorax penicillatus 502 33
Double-crested Cormorant – Phalacrocorax auritus 1
Pelagic Cormorant – Phalacrocorax pelagicus 4
Brown Pelican – Pelecanus occidentalis 36 6
Great Blue Heron – Ardea herodias 1
Great Egret – Ardea alba 6
Snowy Egret – Egretta thula 4
Black Oystercatcher – Haematopus bachmani 1
Long-billed Curlew – Numenius americanus 1
Marbled Godwit – Limosa fedoa 1
Black Turnstone – Arenaria melanocephala 3
Sanderling – Calidris alba 7
Short-billed Dowitcher – Limnodromus griseus 12
Red-necked Phalarope – Phalaropus lobatus 103 25 12
Red Phalarope – Phalaropus fulicarius 5 12 2
phalarope sp. – Phalaropus sp. 15 2
shorebird sp. – Charadriiformes sp. 10
South Polar Skua – Stercorarius maccormicki 3
Pomarine Jaeger – Stercorarius pomarinus 1 7 2
Parasitic Jaeger – Stercorarius parasiticus 1 2
Long-tailed Jaeger – Stercorarius longicaudus 3 6 7
jaeger sp. – Stercorarius sp. (jaeger sp.) 1 10
Craveri’s Murrelet – Synthliboramphus craveri 13
Scripps’s/Guadalupe/Craveri’s Murrelet – Synthliboramphus 11 3 2
Sabine’s Gull – Xema sabini 1 6 1 1
Heermann’s Gull – Larus heermanni 102 13
Western Gull – Larus occidentalis 260 262 17 331
California Gull – Larus californicus 2
Common Tern – Sterna hirundo 140 2 4
Arctic Tern – Sterna paradisaea 8
Common/Arctic Tern – Sterna hirundo/paradisaea 12
Royal Tern – Thalasseus maximus 3 5
Elegant Tern – Thalasseus elegans 71 9 49
Mourning Dove – Zenaida macroura 1
Brown-headed Cowbird – Molothrus ater 6 1 1
passerine sp. – Passeriformes sp. 1
2020-07-15T16:34:58-07:00October 2nd, 2014|Trip Reports|

Hurricane Odile hits Baja California Sur on September 15

Most people heard the news about Hurricane Odile hitting Baja California with unprecedented winds and rainfall, causing widespread damage and power/internet outages. Cabo San Lucas was directly in the hurricane’s path and sustained incredible damage, including the airport which had to be closed. There is some good news on the recovery and rebuilding process, summarized here by Pete Thomas: http://www.petethomasoutdoors.com/2014/09/cabo-san-lucas-recovery-update-airport-to-reopen-saturday-hotels-to-reopen-beginning-oct-1.html.

We have been in communication (just brief emails) with our dear friends in Laguna San Ignacio. They were also very challenged by the wind and incredible rainfall, cutting off travel between the lagoon and town–their source of fresh water and food. We were happy to learn this week that the news is improving there as well. No people and no significant structures were harmed during the storm. They are dealing with heavy water flow coming out of the arroyos into the lagoon and travel disruptions, but vehicles were able to get through and get needed supplies. We are, of course, asking regularly what we can do to help and support them. And after they have time to re-group, we hope to do just that…help our eco-tourism partners and friends recover and host whalewatchers again this winter!

If you’ve visited some of Baja’s remote locations and islands with us, you have seen the incredible beauty created by major flooding events–huge sandy arroyos, steep canyons, lagoons, estuaries, rock formations, plant life adapted to intermittent rainfall, and more. Hurricane Odile will surely leave her mark as well. We are looking forward to visiting these areas again in 2015 to enjoy the work of nature and share it with our passengers. Our thoughts and prayers remain with our neighbors as they deal with the aftermath.

 

2014-09-23T12:26:14-07:00September 23rd, 2014|News|

September 4 (day 4) Pelagic Birding tour

Hello all,
Today we started in the Tanner/Cortez bank area. There was a tremendous amount of birds there starting at daylight. Black-vented shearwaters were everywhere which is significant because they generally are closer to shore. Todd, John and Dave all mentioned they haven’t seen this amount of black-vented shearwaters ever in all their trips. Maybe the warm water conditions have something to do with it. Several blackfooted albatross appeared this afternoon. We had common dolphins. Risso’s dolphin , blue whales and California sea lions in the marine mammal department. Great weather and a great day again.
Today’s picture is a group of four albatross in our chum slick at sunset.

Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:58-07:00September 4th, 2014|Trip Reports|

September 3 (day 3) Pelagic Birding Tour

Hello all,
We had another good day a long way offshore. We spent the day in really deep water– 2000 fathoms and deeper–off the shelf. We started on the Rodriguez Seamount and then went SSE to the San Juan Seamount late this afternoon. We were over 200 miles west of San Diego all day. There were lots of birds to look at at various times during the day and some whale sightings as well.
Pink-footed, sooty, black-vented and Bullers shearwaters, black-footed albatross, red-billed tropicbirds, jeagers, loads of storm petrels (ashy, Leachs, black). Arctic, elegant and common terns, western and Sabine’s gulls. There wasn’t too much time spent without birds today.
We saw Risso’s and common dolphin and a very large blue whale. It is interesting to think about seeing blue whales within 5 miles west of San Diego and then seeing them over 200 miles west of San Diego too! I think it means there is more and more blue whales in the Eastern Pacific. Great news!
Today’s picture is a Risso’s dolphin at the surface with more just under the surface in the foreground.
Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:58-07:00September 3rd, 2014|Trip Reports|

Pelagic Birding Tour, day 2 (September 2)

Hello all,
Another great day with lots of birds. The highlights are south polar skua, pomarine and parasitic jeager, black-footed albatross. We had plenty of storm petrels and pink-footed shearwaters all day, lots of common dolphin, Risso’s dolphin, bottlenose dolphin and the highlight was a group of 20 Baird’s beaked whales. The weather cooperated with light winds all day and not much sea or swell. We are headed into San Miguel Island to have dinner and get some rest before heading west to the Rodriguez Seamount to start tomorrow.
Today’s photo is Dave Povey (chummed extraordinaire) in white hat and some fellow birders at the chum station.
Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:58-07:00September 2nd, 2014|Trip Reports|

Pelagic Birding Tour: September 1

Hello all,
We had a fantastic day with a great start to our pelagic birding trip. We left San Diego harbor and within the first hour we started seeing black-vented shearwaters and we saw them through out the day. There were a few pink-footed shearwater as well.
Probably the highlight for the day was Craveri’s murrlets. We had some really good looks at these birds after the breeze subsided late in the day. Another high light was Sabines’ gull. We saw multiple storm petrels with the majority being blacks. We did see several Ashy’s and a few Least, a lifer for  a few people. We saw lots of Elegant and Common terns, Western gulls, and  a few California gulls.
We saw some marine mammals today with a good look at a bue whale, fin whale, and lots of short-beaked common dolphin. We also saw two northern elephant seals at the surface getting air. We had a very busy afternoon.
Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:58-07:00September 2nd, 2014|Trip Reports|

Seabird report June 20

Hello all,
We have had a great day offshore northern Baja today. We are 100 miles south of San Diego. We have seen 20 black-footed albatross, black and Leach’s storm petrels, northern fulmars, pink-footed and sooty shearwaters and the highlight has been 6 Cook’s petrels. We also had a report from another boat 30 miles to the west of us. They were seeing multiple Cook’s petrels today.
Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:58-07:00June 21st, 2014|Trip Reports|

Just a few spots left…

Our September 1-5 US pelagic birding tour is filling up rapidly. Let us know if you’d like to reserve a spot soon and have your chance to see a Craveri’s murrelet!

(Photo by Larry Schott)

2020-07-15T16:34:58-07:00May 26th, 2014|News|

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