WHY SHOULD I DO MORE THAN ONE PELAGIC TRIP?

Howdy, Birders,
For nearly forty years, birders have been flocking to the central coast of California to witness the fall seabird migration which runs from late July through late November, some years into early December. Birders have come from every state in the USA to head offshore with Shearwater Journeys, as well as from many countries around the globe, including Canada, UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, Hungary, South Africa, Kenya China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Chile — to name a few.
Many times, I am asked how to plan trips, which trips to take, how many trips to take and so on. Doing pelagic trips during migration is best compared to visiting one's favorite land birding site during migration. This could be Cape May, New Jersey, High Island, Texas or the Scilly Isles in the UK. Would you visit these places to spend only 7 or 8 hours birding? Probably not, unless, it just happened to sandwich in between a trip for some other purpose other than birding. Why should pelagic birding be any different? Would you travel all the way across the country for only a few hours spent trying to see new birds with which you have little birding experience? Naturally, most folks on a birding trip will combine birding on land with birding at sea — heading out to look for many of the California specialties. In the Monterey and central coast area, these could include: California condor, prairie falcon, golden eagle, Nuttall's woodpecker, California quail, yellow-billed magpie, wrentit, California thrasher, Lawrence's goldfinch, tricolored blackbird, as well as the newly split "sage" sparrows. The biggest expenditures involve getting to California and staying in California. So, why not add another pelagic trip to the program?

Adding a second, or even a third pelagic trip can really pay off. You might spend your first day trying to get the jizz of shearwater or storm-petrel flight down. On your second day, these things will be more apparent. Weather is a factor. One day might have less than ideal conditions, while the next day could prove to have stunning conditions. Thinking about birding on land — sometimes, we go out and it is just "dull" whereas the next visit to the same patch is "hot." Seabirding is no different. Some days are "rust" and some days are "diamonds." Give yourself a chance to experience this. One day at sea might find a South polar skua, while the next day finds none.

Below, I list the two day tally for AUGUST 17/18 Shearwater Journeys' trips departing from Half Moon Bay, California. On August 17th, we had some swell and choppy seas, whereas on August 18, the seas had smoothed out considerably. Smooth seas made spotting the SCRIPP'S MURRELETS much easier. These tiny alcids, the size of one's hand, are usually very difficult to spot in swells. On the other hand, the swells and breezy day of August 17, set the conditions up for a LAYSAN ALBATROSS to follow our vessel for nearly three hours! The birders who did both trips scored a high list of seabirds. In fact, those birders saw pretty much all of the seabirds that one could reasonably expect during this time of year, in central California Here are the lists, side by side.

AUGUST 17/AUGUST 18

WESTERN GREBE- 12/17
CLARK'S GREBE- 1/1
LAYSAN ALBATROSS- 1/0
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS- 8/30
NORTHERN FULMAR- 1/2
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 90/80
FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 0/1
SOOTY SHEARWATER- 8265/9288
WILSON'S STORM-PETREL- 1/1
ASHY STORM-PETREL- 226/30
BLACK STORM-PETREL- 3/1
BROWN PELICAN- 1200/2129
BRANDT'S CORMORANT- 130/15
DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT- 90/27
PELAGIC CORMORANT- 325/3
BLACK OYSTERCATCHER- 7/7
WANDERING TATTLER- 2/1
WHIMBREL- 0/1
MARBLED GODWIT- 0/1
BLACK TURNSTONE- 11/24
WILLET- 0/1
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE- 6/20
RED PHALAROPE- 55/153
POMARINE JAEGER- 4/6
PARASITIC JAEGER- 2/0
LONG-TAILED JAEGER- 9/31
HEERMANN'S GULL- 1500/137
CALIFORNIA GULL- 190/3
WESTERN GULL- 950/477
SABINE'S GULL- 7/5
ELEGANT TERN- 800/764
COMMON TERN- 2/0
ARCTIC TERN- 2/19
COMMON MURRE- 325/1183
PIGEON GUILLEMOT- 12/7
SCRIPP'S MURRELET- 0/2
CASSIN'S AUKLET- 7/21
RHINOCEROS AUKLET- 8/57
TUFTED PUFFIN- 0/3

Something to think about when planning your pelagic trips!

Shearwaters Forever,

Debi

Laysan Albatross image, copyright, Todd McGrath

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