Pelagic Birding Sightings List, 2016

Searcher Pelagic Birding Trip,  September 5-9, 2016

Sep 5, 2016 – Day 1: San Diego Bay (14 species)

Surf Scoter 1
Western Grebe 9
Brandt’s Cormorant 700 Double-crested Cormorant 4 Brown Pelican 17
Great Blue Heron 1
Snowy Egret 10

Willet (Western) 1

Heermann’s Gull 110

Western Gull 195

Caspian Tern 1

Royal Tern 8

Elegant Tern 1

Rock Pigeon 8

San Diego County Waters including 9-Mile Bank, San Diego Trough, and 30-Mile Bank (16 species + 1 other taxa)

Black-footed Albatross 1

Pink-footed Shearwater 21

Sooty shearwater 2

Black-vented Shearwater 650

Leach’s Storm-Petrel 3

Black Storm-Petrel 254

Least Storm-Petrel 5

Brown Booby 2

Red-necked Phalarope 69

Los Angeles County Waters – 30-Mile Bank (6 species)

Pink-footed Shearwater 4

Sooty Shearwater 1

Leach’s Storm-Petrel 5

Pomarine Jaeger 6

Jaeger sp. 2

Craveri’s Murrelet 5

Sabine’s Gull 3

Western Gull 234

California Gull 2

Common Tern 14

Elegant Tern 28

Black Storm-Petrel 15

Western Gull 20

Common Tern 3

Sep 6, 2016–Day 2, Santa Barbara County Waters including Santa Cruz Basin, Santa Cruz Passage, San Miguel Island waters, and Santa Barbara Channel (24 species)

Surf Scoter 1
Black-footed Albatross 7

Pink-footed Shearwater 125

Sooty Shearwater 18

Black-vented Shearwater 564

Ashy Storm-Petrel 2
Black Storm-Petrel 1
Brandt’s Cormorant 556

Pelagic Cormorant 4

Marbled Godwit 5

Red-necked Phalarope 345

South Polar Skua 1
Pomarine Jaeger 4

Sep 7, 2016–Day 3, Santa Barbara County Waters including Arguello Canyon, Rodriguez Seamount, San Miguel Gap, and west side of the Patton Ridge (24 species +2 other taxa)

Parasitic Jaeger 1

Long-tailed Jaeger 11

Common Murre 1

Cassin’s Auklet 8

Sabine’s Gull 3

Western Gull 330

California Gull 5

Common Tern 3

Royal Tern 1

Elegant Tern 13

Brown-headed Cowbird 2

Black-footed Albatross 19

Pink-footed Shearwater 11

Buller’s Shearwater 1

Sooty Shearwater 5

Wilson’s Storm-Petrel 1

Leach’s Storm-Petrel 177

Townsend’s Storm-Petrel 8

Ashy Storm-Petrel 7

White-faced Ibis 1

Red-billed Tropicbird 1

Peep sp 1

Red-necked Phalarope 52

Red Phalarope 50

Pomarine Jaeger 4

Parasitic Jaeger 3

Long-tailed Jaeger 4

Jaeger sp. 2
Cassin’s Auklet 2
Sabine’s Gull 2
Western Gull 12
Arctic Tern 11
Mourning Dove 1
Yellow Warbler 2

Wilson’s Warbler 1

Brown-headed Cowbird 1

Sep 8, 2016–Day 4, Ventura County Waters – Western part of Cortez Bank (12 Species +1 other taxa)

Black-footed Albatross 9

Pink-footed Shearwater 14

Wilson’s Storm-Petrel 3

Leach’s Storm-Petrel 306

Townsend’s Storm-Petrel 14

Black Storm-Petrel 88

Red Phalarope 9

Pomarine Jaeger 1

Long-tailed Jaeger 6

Murrelet sp. 1

Sabine’s Gull 1

Western Gull 14

Arctic Tern 2

Los Angeles County Waters – Eastern parts of Tanner and Cortez Banks, waters south of San Clemente Island (22 Species +2 other taxa)

Black-footed Albatross 11

Pink-footed Shearwater 24

Sooty Shearwater 6

Leach’s Storm-Petrel 15

Townsend’s Storm-Petrel 1

Black Storm-Petrel 12

Red-billed Tropicbird 1

Brown Booby 1

Brandt’s Cormorant 2

Double-crested Cormorant 1

Red-necked Phalarope 64

Red Phalarope 37

Pomarine Jaeger 1

Parasitic Jaeger 6

Long-tailed Jaeger 9

Jaeger sp. 1

Guadalupe Murrelet 1

Craveri’s Murrelet 6

Murrelet sp. 5

Sabine’s Gull 2

Western Gull 235

Common Tern 29

Arctic Tern 1

Elegant Tern 43

Sep 9, 2016–Day 5, San Diego County Waters: 9-Mile Bank to San Diego Bay (11 species)

Pink-footed Shearwater 5

Black-vented Shearwater 15

Leach’s Storm-Petrel 1

Black Storm-Petrel 105

Least Storm-Petrel 5

Brown Booby 1

Brandt’s Cormorant 1

Red-necked Phalarope 75

Western Gull 20

Common Tern 40

Elegant Tern 3

Many thanks to leaders Todd McGrath, Dave Pereksta, Shawneen Finnegan, and Dave Povey!

2020-07-15T16:34:39-07:00January 6th, 2017|Trip Reports|

Blue, fin, humpback whales feeding group caught on video!

Capt Aaron and crew came upon a fantastic whalewatching experience while on our annual 5-day Labor Day Pelagic Birding Tour (September 5-9, 2016). There was a group of 40-60 whales–blue, fin, and humpback whales–in the same area feeding on krill and squid. This video was taken while some of the whales came very close to the boat. Enjoy!

2016-09-10T10:06:51-07:00September 10th, 2016|Trip Reports, Videos|

Pelagic Birding Tour, day 4

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Dave Pereksta’s photo of the murrelet from a previous trip.

Hello birders: We had a great day on the calm Pacific Ocean today! We started the day off by checking out lots of shearwaters and storm petrels in our slick. The highlight this morning was an epic look at a Guadalupe murrelet. Shortly after we had a Red-billed tropicbird circle the boat for around 15 minutes while we had a brown booby fly by as well.

The afternoon’s sightings consisted of fin whales, blue whales and some more common dolphin. Even a loggerhead turtle graced us for awhile. We saw a few Craveri’s murrelets, and the last pair we saw let us get close for us all to enjoy. We’re going to bird for a couple hours before calling a great trip!

Capt Aaron and the Searcher crew

Many thanks to Tom Blackman for the brown booby photo use!

2020-07-15T16:34:40-07:00September 9th, 2016|Trip Reports|

Pelagic Birding Tour, day 3

Hello birders: We had some strange weather this morning with patchy fog and even mist. The birding has been on the slow side so far, but the ones we have seen are lifers for many.  One was a Wilson storm petrel and for others, it was the Bullers shearwater.  We found several more blue whales and a couple fin whales in the area again today.  We’re hoping for good birding this afternoon.
Capt Aaron and the Searcher crew

The afternoon’s report included a tropicbird (photo from a previous trip) and Townsend’s storm petrels!

2016-09-08T09:19:35-07:00September 8th, 2016|Trip Reports|

Pelagic Birding Tour, day 2 mid-day report

Hello! We’re enjoying this nice weather by the Channel Islands. We started east of Santa Cruz Island and followed the shelf edge. We had really good looks at long-tailed and pomarine jaegers, lots of common dolphin and a small group of bottlenose dolphin.  There are also large numbers of red-necked phalaropes and black-vented shearwaters in this area.

Black-vented Shearwater

Black-vented shearwater, thanks to Tom Blackman

We are going up by San Miguel Island this afternoon, hoping to see some more wildlife.
Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

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Blue whale fluking

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Surfacing blue whale and open blowhole

p.s. Capt Aaron called the office shortly after sending this report. He was in an area of more than a dozen blue whales and they were lunge feeding all around the boat! Needless to say, he was pretty excited and wanted us to add it to the mid-day report! Many thanks to Rob Nawojchik for the use of these blue whale photos!

2020-07-15T16:34:40-07:00September 6th, 2016|Trip Reports|

Pelagic Birding Tour, day 1

It appears that the crew and leaders are too busy to send an official report!

Stand-outs from yesterday afternoon: black-footed albatross, least and black storm petrels, Craveri’s murrelets. This morning brought pomarine and long-tailed jaegers, skua, giant mola, bottlenose and common dolphin. Beautiful weather! We are standing by for a mid-day report and photo…unless they remain too busy! (Attached is a Black-footed albatross taken by Tom Blackman.)

2016-09-06T11:09:50-07:00September 6th, 2016|Trip Reports|

2016 Labor Day Pelagic Birding Tour is off and running!

Our annual 5-day birding adventure through the southern-most ABA waters and through the Channel Islands departed today with 25 birders and 4 leaders.

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Birders from across the US joined the tour, and Andrea and Neil came from Canada.

 

Leader Dave P reporting for duty, loaded for birds!

Leader Dave P reported for duty, loaded for birds!

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Orientation before setting sail.

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Wishing them fantastic sightings of pelagic birds and marine mammals!

2020-07-15T16:34:40-07:00September 5th, 2016|Trip Reports|

2016 Memories: Dolphins Dolphins Dolphins!

When asking our guests for highlights of the 2016 Searcher Natural History Tours whalewatching season, we discovered:

Everybody LOVES dolphins!

Please take a moment to indulge in another 2016 Searcher Memory…
and let the dolphins bring some Baja sunshine to your day!

2020-07-15T16:34:41-07:00May 30th, 2016|News, Trip Reports, Videos|

2016 Tour 5 San Jose del Cabo

Howdy whalewatchers,

Today marked the end of our last Searcher Natural History Tours trip of the 2016 season.  We had an excellent time with this group – such a great bunch – with the magic touch added by both The Travelling Naturalist leader Ian Rowlands and Searcher naturalist Rob Nawojchik.  After we said our goodbyes, the group disembarked and boarded the shuttle for San Jose del Cabo.  They had a few hours to explore, visiting the estuary for birdwatching or local restaurants for breakfast.

San Jose del Cabo square

San Jose del Cabo square – photo credit: Mark Underwood

Some stayed on and extended their holiday in this laid-back Baja beach town,  while the rest boarded the shuttle for the SJD airport where they started their journeys home.

We wish them safe travels and send our gratitude for a wonderful shared experience to close out a spectacular 2016 season.  Already looking forward to next year!

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

bwtrip5cabo

2020-07-15T16:34:43-07:00April 20th, 2016|Trip Reports|

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