The San Diego pelagic trip on Saturday, 13 August, aboard “Legacy” and sponsored by Buena Vista Audubon Society visited the 9-Mile & 30-Mile Banks, San Diego Trough, and “The Corner,” out to the edge of San Diego County waters. The seas were moderate on the way out, but lightened the remainder of the day. It was a very good trip, with some of the highlights being a well-seen Cook’s Petrel at The Corner, at least three different Black-footed Albatrosses (The Corner, 30-Mile Bank, w. SD Trough), 3 or 4 Least Storm-Petrels (The Corner & 30-Mile), 1 Ashy, 12+ Townsend’s & 22+ Leach’s Storm-Petrels (some of which were closer to shore than usual, as close as the 9-Mile Bank), 11 Craveri’s Murrelets, 5 Long-tailed Jaegers, 9 Sabine’s Gulls, 1 Arctic Tern (30-Mile), a good count of 50 Common Terns, 3 Northern Fulmars (very rare at this time of year), and 9 Brown Boobies.
And we are on a roll!!! For the THIRD scheduled pelagic trip in a row (June, July, August), despite our attempts to sift through flocks of Black-vented Shearwaters in hopes of finding a very rare Manx Shearwater, but to no avail, a Manx has indeed been found after the conclusion of the trip via folks looking carefully at their photos. This trip’s installment of the saga is courtesy of Barbara Wise, who studied her many trip photos from yesterday and found a Manx sitting in a large flock of Black-venteds in the eastern San Diego Trough.
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Offshore (beyond one mile out) totals for the day were as follows:
Red-necked Phalarope 135
Red Phalarope 3
Pomarine Jaeger 5
Long-tailed Jaeger 5
jaeger sp. 3
Craveri’s Murrelet 11
murrelet sp. 4
Cassin’s Auklet 12
Sabine’s Gull 9
Heermann’s Gull 13
Western Gull 140
Common Tern 50
ARCTIC TERN 1
Elegant Tern 180
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS 3
Leach’s Storm-Petrel 22
Townsend’s Storm-Petrel 12
Leach’s/Townsend’s Storm-Petrel 13
Ashy Storm-Petrel 1
Black Storm-Petrel 75
LEAST STORM-PETREL 3
Northern Fulmar 3
COOK’S PETREL 1
MANX SHEARWATER 1
Sooty Shearwater 14
Pink-footed Shearwater 40
Black-vented Shearwater 1200
Brown Booby 9
Brandt’s Cormorant 1
Brown Pelican 15
Also a Guadalupe Fur Seal.
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–Paul Lehman, Dave Povey, Bruce Rideout, Dan King, Gary Nunn, San Diego
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