Shearwater Journey's pelagic trip from Half Moon Bay on Monday, September 13, 2010 was astounding! We covered both San Mateo and San Francisco Counties, spending a significant part of the day in San Francisco County. We reached the warm water edge where the albacore boats were fishing. One of these guys gave me two albacore for my birthday! This is where Wes Fritz found a single, distant "Cook's type" petrel. The murrelets were also at this edge. The warm water out of Half Moon Bay is the only place along the coast where it can be reached in a one day trip, right now. The numbers, below, may be tweaked a bit, once I get some input from the other leaders who were on board with us. It sure was a fantastic day! and, birthday!
We were out on glassy, smooth seas for a solid 12 hours (much longer than the trip was scheduled to be out). It was an incredible day for photographers, with the afternoon lighting especially awesome. It is pretty obvious that there is an awful lot of food available in this region, not only for birds, but also whales, dolphins, and sea lions.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2010 HALF MOON BAY:
1 COOKELARIA PETREL
2 or 3 LAYSAN ALBATROSSES
45 BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSSES
130 NORTHERN FULMARS
82 PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERS
28 BULLER'S SHEARWATERS
265 SOOTY SHEARWATERS
4 WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS
14 FORK-TAILED STORM-PETRELS
580 ASHY STORM-PETRELS
12 BLACK STORM-PETRELS
20,000 RED/RED-NECKED PHALAROPES- huge migrating flocks which darkened the sky
4 SOUTH POLAR SKUAS
2 POMARINE JAEGERS
8 PARASITIC JAEGERS
20 LONG-TAILED JAEGERS
24 SABINE'S GULLS
250 ELEGANT TERNS
8 COMMON TERNS
6 ARCTIC TERNS
385 COMMON MURRES
1 PIGEON GUILLEMOT
28 CASSIN'S AUKLETS
2 XANTUS' MURRELETS (hypoleuca)
76 RHINOCEROS AUKLETS
450 CALIFORNIA SEA LIONS, feeding offshore, probably on sardines
1 NORTHERN FUR SEAL
4 HARBOR SEALS
6 FIN WHALES
73 HUMPBACK WHALES !
32 RISSO'S DOLPHINS
120 PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS
16 DALL'S PORPOISE
3 OCEAN SUNFISH
3 BLUE SHARKS
Shearwaters forever,
Debi Shearwater
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