Trip Reports

Aloha birders,: Let’s just start out  with a Hawaiian petrel and a very good look at the bird! It came very close and almost circled the boat before taking off. We sighted this bird in LA County waters. There were lots of red-billed tropicbirds today too. The trip was very successful and we’re not quite done yet! Good birding, Capt Aaron

Howdy birders: We had a good day by starting with  red-billed tropicbirds and a brown booby at the Rodriguez Sea Mount. We had lots of Bullers shearwaters, fin whales, and blue whales as well. So our counts are: 41 Bullers shearwaters, 12 tropicbirds, three black-footed albatrosses and a brown booby. Good birding, Capt Aaron

Howdy birders: Today  started out with calm weather and a large flock of storm petrels. These were mostly black, with a few Ashy and a couple least storm petrels. We also had a great look at a pod of Risso’s dolphins in clear, well-lit water and they just loafed around while we took observation. After that we had a acrobatic show of some bottlenose dolphins. Our highlight today was a pigeon guillemot sighting. It was a suprise to see them here around the Channel Islands this late in the year. And fter that we had steady pink-footed, sooty and a few black-vented shearwaters thoughout the rest of the day. So we’re headed west tomorrow to deeeeep water looking for tubenoses, so wish us luck and stand by for a report tomorrow. Good birding, Capt Aaron

Howdy birders: First day of our trip here and it’s starting out with calm seas and lots of birds. We have had lots of black vented, sootys, and  pink-footed shearwaters, a few phalaropes and some common terns to be mixed in. For the mammals we had a good-sized herd of common dolphin and to end up the day we had several blue whales–a cow-calf pair and then a fluking blue whale in the same area. So we’re headed up to the Channel Islands tonight so wish us luck tomorrow and the weather looks good tomorrow too. Good birding, Capt Aaron

Stay tuned for our reports from the field.

Gary Nunn, Jim Pea, and I set out on a “fishing trip” that turned into a Birding trip. We had very good viewing conditions, for alcids, early. Actually very quiet overall, particularly the La Jolla sector.

Highlights;
Craveri’s Murrelets- 6, 3 scattered pairs seen at close range and photographed.
6 additional murrelet sp. all pairs were flushed, but not I.D. All these between the outside north end of the Coronado Escarpment and the inside of the 30 Mile Bank Escarpment. 15.6 n.m. to about 25 n.m. west of Pacific Beach.
Red-billed Tropicbird- 1, adult, at the north end of Nine Mile Bank. Photos.
Buller’s Shearwaters- 3-4, Three seen together on the water on the 30 Mile Bank. One, 20 min later flew past the boat. Photos.
Sabine’s Gull- 1 One adult starting moult to basic (winter) plumage.
seen over the San Diego Trough. Photos.
also seen;
Pink-ft. Shearwater- 22
Sooty Shearwater- 18
Black-v. Shearwater- 1
Black Storm Petrel- 30
Ashy Storm-Petrel- 3
Leach’s Storm-Petrel 8
Wandering Tattler- 1 (n. M.B. Jetty)
Surfbird- 3 (s. M.B. Jetty)
Red Phalarope- 2
Red-n. Phalarope- 10
Common Tern- 9
Elegant Tern- 25
Cassin’s Auklet- 3
large auklet- 1 (pos. Rhinoceros Auklet)?
passerine sp.- 2 (one landed briefly on the boat, pos. Brewer’s Sparrow) ?
Common Dolphin- <50
Humpback Whale- 1
Calif Sealion- 4
Blue Shark- 1
Mola mola- 6

Thursday Aug. 1st., Tom Blackman, Jack and Doug Hanna, and I did a birding tour of the 9- Mile and 30- Mile Banks in San Diego Co. waters. We found the morning somewhat rough and windy, but by mid-morning things started to settle and by noon we had nearly glass calm seas, and sunny conditions.
Highlights:
2 Guadalupe Murrelets, an adult with juvenile seen at the south end of the 30-Mile Bank near Mex. Border. Juv. could get into the air but not sustain flight more that a few yards. Adult was heard doing repeated “insect like” trilled contact call, (differs from the more musical whistled call of Scripps’s). Photos taken.(the only alcids seen today)
1 South Polar Skua, north end of 9-Mile Bank (11 n.m. from Pt. Loma).
3 Brown Boobies, all immatures, mid 9-Mile Bank. 3 together seen on the way out morning, one in the same area, on the way in the afternoon.
8 Ashy Storm-Petrels, mid San Diego Trough to 30-Mile Bank.
1 Leach’s Storm-Petrel, dark rumped, seen near the south end of 30-Mile Bank.
some other species numbers:
Pink-footed Shearwater 60
Sooty Shearwater 75
Black-vented Shearwater 135 (many on 9-Mile Bank, some further offshore)
Black Storm-Petrel 40
Surfbird 6 Zuniga Jetty (not present on 7-27)
Black Turnstone 15
Ruddy Turnstone 1
Red Phalarope 6
Red-necked Phalarope 215
Elegant Tern 25 offshore, 300+ Zuniga Jetty and S.D.Bay entrance.
Parasitic Jaeger 1

To all our 2013 passengers and newest Searcher family members: Thank you so much for joining us and following along on our blog. The last tour had a wonderful encounter with a large feeding group of false killer whales, including audio from a hydrophone. We are trying to get the video file transferred into a format we can share here. Please check back for this great wrap-up of the season!