This is the Buena Vista Audubon pelagic birding trip report for Oct. 4, 2020.
Twenty-six birders and two leaders met at Seaforth Landing in Mission Bay. Paul Lehman did an orientation to the boat and shared general offshore etiquette and some seabird locating and viewing hints, while Bruce Rideout did the manifest sign-in and eBird checklist sign-up. We then boarded the 80ft. Legacy, stowed gear, and departed as scheduled. My thanks to all birders who show up with time to allow all the pre- departure routine to get done, allow loading, and shoving off on time.
The marine forecast was about as good as it gets. We did have a good size swell, but on a nice long interval. I don’t think most passengers were even aware of the swell. The “fly in the ointment” was fog. More about that in a minute, but skies were mostly clear at the landing and for a short distance offshore. Once we left the dock, we passed Mission Bay’s live bait receivers. These store sardines, anchovies, mackerel and the like for the fishing fleet. Those small fish often escape the transfer from receivers to boats and that attracts the fish eaters, providing nice views and great photo opportunities for pelicans, cormorants, gulls, herons, egrets, and the ubiquitous California Sea Lions. Once clearing the basin and entering the channel, we headed over to the river overflow wall to check out a group of Elegant and Royal Terns. This is a nice spot to compare these two similar tern species. I think these terns are easier to separate and identify when sitting side by side than when seen singly in the air.
The surprise here was six Surfbirds. They are somewhat regular wintering birds here in small numbers. The Mission Bay jetties are one of the most reliable local spots to find them. Surfbirds breed in the mountains of Alaska and winter along the west coast of North America. Some Surfbirds move past us to winter all the way down in southern South America. We also had a solo Black Turnstone here; a common rocky shoreline bird and much more widespread than Surfbird. While we were looking at the Surfbirds and terns, we also had a flyby Black Oystercatcher. This large rocky shoreline bird is rare but regular year around off San Diego. This is likely the same bird we saw a couple of weeks ago on the same jetty. I’d not seen Black Oystercatchers on the Mission Bay Jetties prior to that trip. That is of interest as they are somewhat regularly seen at La Jolla to the north and the San Diego Bay (Zuniga) Jetty to the south. They do breed on the Coronado Islands just across the border, and some may wander to the mainland, as I’ve seen them several times on the open ocean between the islands and the beach. They have turned up as far north as the Oceanside jetty.
We then headed offshore and within a couple miles hit the fog wall. Dang it all. I do mean the “wall”; visibility was sometimes down to a hundred feet or less. Paul jokingly said if anyone on the bow sees an iceberg, let us know. We are sure spoiled about ocean conditions off San Diego. Fog is not rare here but is usually thin, patchy, and burns-off fairly early in the day. Not today; we spent the next three plus hours staring into the mist. Looking up we could see blue sky. Looking out from the boat the most we could see was an occasional bird silhouette. By the time the silhouettes were called out, they had disappeared into the gray. We covered some productive waters with little to show for the effort. Even the chummed gull flock lost track of us as we moved down the Nine Mile Bank and into the San Diego Trough. The San Diego Trough had patches of open air, at times allowing visibility out to maybe a quarter mile or so; just enough to allow us a hint of what was there before shutting down again. We did pick up a few things, such as Black-vented Shearwaters. We almost certainly went through mobs of them in the fog, but recorded few. A couple Pink-footed Shearwaters were also seen, but this species is more common offshore, so we would do better out here. Then Black Storm-Petrels were seen here and there, but not in the concentration we’d hoped for. Black Storm-Petrel is our most common storm-petrel and usually we make a point of studying its shape and flight style to separate the other all dark storm-petrels, such as Ashy (not seen today), Leach’s (chapmani), and Least Storm-Petrels ( also not recorded today).
We did pick up a few expected species, including Red and Red-necked Phalaropes, a somewhat late Sabine’s Gull in a small flight of Elegant Terns, and a few Cassin’s Auklets. The latter species was mostly absent all summer and early fall. We actually felt like we could see some distance from the boat by the time we hit the so-called “corner” (a bend in the U.S.-Mexico border) thirty some odd miles from Point Loma, and the dividing line between San Diego County and Los Angeles County. We turned at this point and started back to the east. BINGO ! We got a bonus bird, a RED-FOOTED BOOBY flew down the length of the boat, circled, and made several passes. I really think it had in mind to land. This species often takes advantage of whatever floats. Boats work nicely, but floating kelp, a log, even a basking sea turtle will work. This bird was the common color morph found off western Mexico, kind of a warm coffee with cream color. The base of the bill was pink and the facial skin a bright blue. It was an immature, as the feet were a soft pink, not yet the bright red of an adult. This bird was nearly identical to the Red-footed Booby seen on the same bank, some ten miles to the north, and two weeks back. Could it be? Not likely, but as these guys cover pretty wide distances, it’s not impossible.
While we were maneuvering on this bird for photos, a Cassin’s Auklet came dashing into our wake. We stopped, thinking we’d get some distant photos, but then it worked its way over to the boat. That is a bit odd, as Cassin’s Auklets usually flee large objects such as the boat and seem terrified by the large gull flocks we attract. Not so this little guy. We got some of the best photos of a Cassin’s Auklet I’d ever seen. Once back underway, we saw a “gull” sitting on the water, which turned out to be a bright white-morph Northern Fulmar feeding on a dead fish floating at the surface. This bird did not want to give up its treasure, so again we got nice photos. It was in nice clean plumage, so must have recently arrived. We do occasionally get summering Northern Fulmars, but if they survive, they look pretty ratty by this time of the fall season.
We proceeded in a straight line back into the San Diego Trough, and then back toward the Nine Mile Bank. About half way across the Trough the call went up that the RED-FOOTED BOOBY was coming back up the wake. But it was quickly apparent this was a different bird from the first. It had a pale tail and rump unlike the first bird, and different wing molt pattern, but most conclusive was that the bill was all dark gray, as was the facial skin. This bird’s behavior was also different in that it clearly was after food, and it returned to our chummed gull flock repeatedly, providing lots of photo opportunities. Could the once very rare Red-footed Booby reach junk bird status here? I don’t think so!
The Nine Mile Bank had a few Black Storm-Petrels and one smaller stormie, which photos proved to be a chapmani Leach’s Storm-Petrel. That was disappointing, as we had a number of Least Storm-Petrels at this location two weeks ago (see the trip report dated Sept. 19, 2020). We did pick up a few things missed on the last pass through this area. First, a nice adult Pomarine Jaeger, then the first of nine Brown Boobies in all plumages, immature, adult female, and adult male. The adult male was the brewsteri subspecies from western Mexico, which has a frosted white head and neck, making it easy to identify from a fair distance. After that, we had a solo Sooty Shearwater, followed by an adult Herring Gull, which is not a rarity here but is much less common than Herring Gulls on the east coast. This bird was a bit on the early side and our first of the season. We also had nice looks at the abundant Black-vented Shearwaters as we traveled back inshore. We had seen some earlier, but not very well in the transit through the fog.
A very nice day on the ocean; if not for the fog early, it would have been nearly perfect.
Dave Povey
Birds in Mission Bay
Western Grebe
Rock Pigeon
Black Oystercatcher
Black-bellied Plover
Black Turnstone
Surfbird
Least Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Willet
Heermann’s Gull
Western Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster’s Tern
Royal Tern
Elegant Tern
Brandt’s Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Birds seen offshore
Red-necked Phalarope
Red Phalarope
Pomarine Jaeger
Cassin’s Auklet
Sabine’s Gull
Heermann’s Gull
California Gull
Western Gull
Herring Gull
Elegant Tern
Royal Tern
Leach’s Storm-Petrel (chapmani)
Black Storm-Petrel
Northern Fulmar
Pink-footed Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Black-vented Shearwater
Brown Booby
Red-footed Booby
Double-crested Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Marine mammals
Common Dolphin
Elephant Seal
Harbor Seal
California Sea Lion
Fish
Shark sp.
California Flying Fish
Mackerel sp.
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