The San Diego pelagic trip on Sunday, August 4th, aboard “Legacy” and sponsored by Buena Vista Audubon Society, sailed out to the 9-Mile & 30-Mile Banks and “The Corner” (some 32 miles offshore). Seas were light to moderate, with a light surface chop, improving as the day went on. Highlights of the trip were a very cooperative South Polar Skua on the 30-Mile Bank, again a record (tie) single-day high count of 6 Black-footed Albatrosses for the second day in a row, mostly in the 30-Mile Bank area, 5 Brown (Cocos) Boobies, and plenty of white-rumped Leach’s/Townsend’s Storm-Petrels at the 30-Mile Bank and nearby to befuddle us.
Totals for the day, once we were a mile offshore, included:
- Western Sandpiper 10
- Red-necked Phalarope 40
- South Polar Skua 1
- Pomarine Jaeger 2
- Cassin’s Auklet 1
- small alcid sp. 1
- Heermann’s Gull 1
- Western Gull 70
- Least Tern 1 (30 miles offshore)
- Common Tern 2
- Elegant Tern 34
- Black-footed Albatross 6
- Leach’s Storm-Petrel 23 (fairly high total; both white-rumped and dark-rumped)
- Townsend’s Storm-Petrel 2 (more or less, depending on outcome of photo study)
- Leach’s/Townsend’s (white-rumped) Storm-Petrel 10
- Black Storm-Petrel 320
- Sooty Shearwater 37
- Pink-footed Shearwater 24
- Black-vented Shearwater 16
- Brown (Cocos) Booby 5
- Brandt’s Cormorant 1
- Double-crested Cormorant 1
- Brown Pelican 73
- Also:
- Surfbird 10
- Blue Whale 2
- Risso’s Dolphins
Paul Lehman, Dan Jehl, Jimmy McMorran, Gary Nunn, Barbara Wise, San Diego
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