It was a beautiful day at sea on Shearwater Journeys' October 14, 2011 pelagic trip at Bodega Bay. Great sea conditions and thousands of ocean birds, along with a fabulous group of folks on board made it all the more memorable. We traveled some 32 miles offshore to the 1200 fathom line. Red tide, or as one person described it, "root beer-colored tide," was found in patches, even offshore. Precious few seabirds were observed in those areas. Outside of the red tide, though, thousands of storm-petrels were rafted up in flocks, sitting on the water. We love that! Highlights of the day included over 100 NORTHERN FULMARS, 1 FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER, 260 BULLER'S SHEARWATERS, 3 WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS, 1875 FORK-TAILED STORM-PETRELS, 1500 ASHY STORM-PETRLS and 15 BLACK STORM-PETRELS, 11 SOUTH POLAR SKUAS, 2 SABINE'S GULLS and 1 PALM WARBLER which was about 30 miles offshore in Marin County. Most of the day, however, was spent in Sonoma County.
All images, below by Debi Shearwater, copyright. Please do not use without permission. Enjoy more images by Todd McGrath of this day, here.
As we move toward the winter months, we anticipate higher counts of NORTHERN FULMARS, above. Groups of fulmars were sitting on the water at the stern of the vessel, often vying with each other for the best spot, making their gutteral calls. Fun to hear!
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS numbers should also increase over the coming months. These albatrosses mixed it up with the fulmars at the stern, also giving their high-pitched calls. Recently, fishermen at Bodega Bay have sighted a SHORT-TAILED ALBATROSS. Fingers crossed, we may find this ocean wanderer on our October 29th trip!
Although the masses of storm-petrels put on quite a display, the SOUTH POLAR SKUAS stole the show! These kleptoparasites of the seas kept us very entertained by continuously flying and circling overhead.
Sometimes, skuas are the pursuers, as when they flushed a flock of more than 200 BULLER'S SHEARWATERS, sitting on the water, and sometimes the skuas themselves are pursued, as is the case, below!
Each time a new skua would fly toward the vessel, the leaders would loudly shout out, "SKUAAAA!" After a couple of bouts of this, I mentioned to the friendly folks on board that this presents an opportunity to shout one's lungs out! Soon, we had most of the folks on board, yelling at the top of their lungs, "SKUAAA" in unison! Maybe it was the end of the season silliness and relief, but it sure was fun! As one friend recently remarked to me, regarding Angelica Huston, playing me in the movie, "The Big Year"— "You are a lot more entertaining!"
Apparently, all (?) of the South Polar Skuas at this time of year are sub-adults, as the adults are, well, near the South Pole, beginning their nesting season! These sub-adult skuas seem far more interested in checking out the vessel than adults do, earlier in the season, at least in my opinion.
Above is Chris Taylor's image of a SOUTH POLAR SKUA in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, on the Shearwater Journeys' charter voyage to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. Chris has a gorgeous photo gallery!
Well, those fulmars had a buddy hanging around with them that we did not see on this day— a WHITE-CHINNED PETREL which was found by Todd McGrath two day's later at Cordell Bank on October 16th. We'll be looking that buddy on October 29th! Many thanks to all of the fun birders who joined us on this day. The leaders were: Lisa Hug, Jennifer Green, Todd McGrath, Steve Howell, Wes Fritz and Debi Shearwater.
We are operating an "emergency" pelagic trip, departing from Bodega Bay on Saturday, October 29th to search for mega-rare seabirds, including the White-chinned Petrel and Short-tailed Albatross. Spaces are still available. For details, click here.
The complete species list for October 14, 2011
BODEGA CANYON & CORDELL BANK follows:
RED-THROATED LOON- 1
PACIFIC LOON- 10
COMMON LOON- 9
RED-NECKED GREBE- 3
EARED GREBE- 2
WESTERN GREBE- 3
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS- 14
NORTHERN FULMAR- 107
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 51
FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 1
BULLER'S SHEARWATER- 260
SOOTY SHEARWATER- 31
WILSON'S STORM-PETREL- 3
FORK-TAILED STORM-PETREL- 1875
ASHY STORM-PETREL- 1500
BLACK STORM-PETREL- 15
BROWN PELICAN- +
BRANDT'S CORMORANT- +
PELAGIC CORMORANT- 6
SURF SCOTER- 24
GREATER SCAUP- 13
BRANT GOOSE- 8
BLACK OYSTERCATCHER- 1
BLACK TURNSTONE- 2
SURFBIRD- 1
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE- 17
RED-NECKED/RED PHALAROPE- 30
RED PHALAROPE- 12
SOUTH POLAR SKUA- 8 to 11
POMARINE JAEGER- 7
PARASITIC JAEGER- 1
JAEGER SP.- 3
HEERMANN'S GULL- 1, offshore
MEW GULL- 1, adult
CALIFORNIA GULL- +
HERRING GULL- 2
GLAUCOUS-WINGED/HERRING GULL- 1
WESTERN GULL- +
GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL- 3
WESTERN/GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL- 3
SABINE'S GULL- 2
ELEGANT TERN- 4
COMMON MURRE- 68
PIGEON GUILLEMOT- 2
CASSIN'S AUKLET- 94
RHINOCEROS AUKLET- 29
PALM WARBLER- 1, about 30 miles offshore, Marin County, consumed by a gull
CALIFORNIA SEA LION- 120
HUMPBACK WHALE- 25
DALL'S PORPOISE- 12
OCEAN SUNFISH- 1
EGG YOLK JELLIES- +
Shearwaters & Auklets Forever,
Debi Shearwater
AKA: "Annie Auklet" as played by Angelica Huston in the movie, "The Big Year" playing at the theater near you now!
Cannery Row, above, does not bear any resemblance to what it once was— home of the largest sardine cannery in the world— until the sardines disappeared. Sardines are making a comeback and there is now a fishery for them, once again.
After watching and photographing these Killer Whales for a solid hour, we had to head back to the harbor. They also appeared to be finished feeding, as they formed a "chorus line" and headed away from us.
