25 August 2024

The San Diego pelagic trip on Sunday, 25 August, out to the 30-Mile Bank area aboard “Legacy” and sponsored by Buena Vista Audubon Society took place with a morning moderate, short-period swell, calming down later in the day. There were good numbers of birds just 4-6 miles out, and then again around the 30-Mile Bank. Mostly quiet in between. The highlights were the 30-Mile albatrosses: a fine Laysan Albatross sitting on the water and a record county total of 9 Black-footed Albatrosses (8 in view at once). The Laysan was banded, probably at the colony on Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, and the alphanumeric code will be sent to the Bird Banding Lab. The other clear highlight was the large number of white-rumped storm-petrels at the 30-Mile Bank, with perhaps 60 in all, of which a majority appeared to be Townsend’s Storm-Petrels–a new record high for San Diego County waters. A more “exact” total will be determined once we have studied the many photographs taken. A total of 4 Craveri’s Murrelets were seen on the trip, as well as 7 Brown (Cocos) Boobies. The lone landbird migrant well offshore was a surprising MacGillivray’s Warbler. Non-birds of interest included a Striped Marlin, Loggerhead Sea-Turtle, Elephant Seal, and Risso’s Dolphins.

Totals for the day once over a mile offshore were:

• Red-necked Phalarope  54
• Pomarine Jaeger  17
• Parasitic Jaeger  3
• jaeger sp.  7
• Craveri’s Murrelet  4
• Heermann’s Gull  2
• Western Gull  250
• California Gull  1
• Common Tern  19
• Forster’s Tern  1  (a few miles out)
• Elegant Tern  400
• Laysan Albatross  1
• Black-footed Albatross  9
• Leach’s Storm-Petrel  15+
• Townsend’s Storm-Petrel  ca. 40
• Leach’s/Townsend’s Storm-Petrels  ca. 20
• Black Storm-Petrel  300
• Sooty Shearwater  5
• Pink-footed Shearwater  100
• Black-vented Shearwater  2000
• Brown (Cocos) Booby  7
• Brandt’s Cormorant  12
• Brown Pelican  120
• MacGillivray’s Warbler  1  (30-Mile Bank)
• Also:  Surfbirds, Loggerhead Sea-Turtle, Striped Marlin, California Flying-Fish, Minke Whale, Risso’s Dolphins, and Elephant Seal.

Paul Lehman, Dave Povey, Bruce Rideout, Alex Abela, Nancy Christensen, Gary Nunn, San Diego