Three days of seabirding on Monterey Bay with Shearwater Journeys produced quite an array of seabirds. This report covers trips on October 3, 4, and offshore on Oct 5 to the albacore fishing grounds. All trips departed from Fishermans' Wharf in Monterey. Highlights included: 2 PIGEON GUILLEMOTS on October 3 (most guillemots have departed for their wintering area, Queen Charlotte Island), 5 species of shearwaters on October 4, including 325 PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERS, 2 FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATERS, 25 BULLER'S SHEARWATERS, and 10 BLACK-VENTED SHEARWATERS with participants having excellent views of all shearwaters, sitting on the water. Another highlight of the October 4th trip was our first rainfall since March 15th! Living in a Mediterranean climate, we rarely see rain at this time of year. Even so, it did not amount to much, or impact the birding at all. Capping off the three days of seabirding on October 5 the highlights included all of the following in SANTA CRUZ COUNTY: 6 XANTUS' MURRELETS scrippsi, 5 XANTUS MURRELETS hypoleucus that breeds on islands off Baja California, 1800 ASHY STORM-PETRELS, 15 BLACK STORM-PETRELS, and 4 LEAST STORM-PETRELS, 8 SOUTH POLAR SKUAS, 13 POMARINE JAEGERS, 9 PARASITIC JAEGERS, and 3 SABINE'S GULLS. Everyone on board had excellent views of the murrelets, while the Baja murrelets gave their distinctive calls! County birders were having a field day! All of these birds were out at the albacore grounds, some 35 miles off Monterey. Fish were jumping! Lots of bait fish and bonita were around. The sea surface temperature was a balmy 64.7F and the water was the deep aqua blue, clear water that both the albacore and murrelets prefer. Murrelets are one of the target species of the albacore trips. The least storm-petrels were a great bonus! It was a great set of trips!
Where the heck did that massive storm-petrel flock of 10,000 birds on September 14th go?? After searching for them on many trips since that date, even on some very calm seas, with zero luck — I believe the mystery has been solved! It has been reported to me from birders who took a cruise ship from Vancouver to Los Angeles that they ran into the storm-petrels far away from where we last saw them! It would seem that it has been confirmed that the storm-petrel flocks are not within reaching distance of Monterey trips.
We would like to thank all of our participants who took part in these three trips. The leaders were as follows:
October 3= Clay Kempf, Jennifer Green, & Debra Shearwater
October 4= Clay Kempf, Brian Sullivan, Oscar Johnson, Adam Searcy, & Debra Shearwater
October 5= Scott Terrill, Linda Terrill, David Vander Pluym, Oscar Johnson, Adam Searcy, Ryan Terrill, & Debra Shearwater.
Spaces are still available on the following trips from Monterey: October 11, 18, November 29, January 17; from Bodega Bay: October 9 & 17.
The complete species lists follow:
OCT 3/ OCT 4, 2008
PACIFIC LOON- 1/0
COMMON LOON- 0/5
WESTERN GREBE- 3/0
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS- 11/10
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 150/325
FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 0/2
BULLER'S SHEARWATER- 157/285
SOOTY/SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER- 1/1
BLACK-VENTED SHEARWATER- 0/10
BROWN PELICAN- 80/150
BRANDT'S CORMORANT- 300/55
HARLEQUIN DUCK- 0/1, in the harbor
MARBLED GODWIT- 2/0
BLACK TURNSTONE- 0/5
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE- 9/33
SOUTH POLAR SKUA- 1/3
POMARINE JAEGER- 8/23
POMARINE/PARASITIC- 6/4
PARASITIC JAEGER- 2/14
PARASITIC/LONG-TAILED- 0/1
HEERMANNS' GULL- 350/175
CALIFORNIA GULL- 40/500
WESTERN GULL- 120/500
SABINE'S GULL- 0/1
ELEGANT TERN- 38/45
COMMON MURRE- 420/250
PIGEON GUILLEMOT-2/0
CASSIN'S AUKLET- 21/31
RHINOCEROS AUKLET- 270/87
PEREGRINE FALCON- 0/1, on the radio tower on Cannery Row
SEA OTTER- 3/5
CALIFORNIA SEA LION- 100/++
NORTHERN FUR SEAL- 0/6
HUMPBACK WHALE- 14/24
NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE DOLPHIN- 0/20
RISSO'S DOLPHIN- 0/15
PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN- 80/85
DALL'S PORPOISE- 12/6
OCEAN SUNFISH- 7/10
BLUE SHARK- 3/0
OCTOBER 5, 2008
MTY/SCZ/COUNTIES
PACIFIC LOON- 0/1
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS- 4/7
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 75/22
BULLER'S SHEARWATER- 17/2
ASHY STORM-PETREL- 0/1800
BLACK STORM-PETREL- 0/15
LEAST STORM-PETREL-0/4
WEIRD STORM-PETREL-1, with a white belly. Presumed to be an Ashy, unless photos prove otherwise.
BROWN PELICAN- 35/2
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE- 16/1
RED PHALAROPE- 7/0
SOUTH POLAR SKUA- 3/8
POMARINE JAEGER- 9/13
POMARINE/PARASITIC- 0/1
PARASITIC JAEGER- 2/9
PARASITIC/LONG-TAILED- 0/1
HEERMANN'S GULL- 275/8
WESTERN GULL- 475/15
SABINE'S GULL- 12/3
COMMON MURRE- 40/0
XANTUS' MURRELET (scrippsi)- 0/6
XANTUS' MURRELET (hypoleucus)- 0/5
XANTUS'/CRAVERI'S MURRELET- 0/3
CASSIN'S AUKLET- 36/3
RHINOCEROS AUKLET- 120/4
HUMMINGBIRD SP.- 1/0
CALIFORNIA SEA LION- 60
NORTHERN FUR SEAL- 10
HUMPBACK WHALE- 12
PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN- 25
OCEAN SUNFISH- 2
BLUE SHARK- 2
Shearwaters forever,
Debra
Debra Shearwater
Shearwater Journeys, Inc.
PO Box 190
Hollister, CA 95024
831.637.8527
www.shearwaterjourneys.com
*Antarctica, South Georgia, & The Falkland Islands, January 5-24, 2010*
Shearwater Journeys' Exclusive Charter
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