The San Diego pelagic trip on 6 August aboard “Legacy” and sponsored by Buena Vista Audubon Society took place under very nice weather and sea conditions. As is usual, we ventured out to the Nine-Mile Bank, across the San Diego Trough, to the 30-Mile Bank and “The Corner,” some 34 miles offshore. There were a reasonable number and variety of birds offshore, including such highlights as 5 Cook’s Petrels, 1 adult Nazca Booby, 2 Black-footed Albatrosses, plenty of Townsend’s & Leach’s and Ashy Storm-Petrels, 2 Long-tailed Jaegers, a getting-late Scripps’s Murrelet, 17 Craveri’s Murrelets, a surprising 5 summertime Northern Fulmars, 10 Common Terns and 2 offshore Forster’s Terns, and a good count of 15 Brown Boobies. Totals for the trip once we were over a mile or so offshore were:
- Semipalmated Plover 1
- Black Turnstone 1
- Least Sandpiper 1
- Western Sandpiper 1
- Red-necked Phalarope 135
- Red Phalarope 3
- Parasitic Jaeger 2
- Long-tailed Jaeger 2 (Nine-Mile Bank)
- jaeger sp. 2
- Scripps’s Murrelet 1 (getting late)
- Craveri’s Murrelet 17
- murrelet sp. 10
- Sabine’s Gull 8
- Heermann’s Gull 4
- Western Gull 40
- Common Tern 10
- Forster’s Tern 2 (unusual offshore; 13 mi W of Mission Bay)
- Elegant Tern 55
- Black-footed Albatross 2 (30-Mile Bank, SD Trough)
- Leach’s Storm-Petrel 10+ (incl. 7 “Chapman’s”)
- Townsend’s Storm-Petrel 7+ (30-Mile Bank & The Corner)
- Leach’s/Townsend’s Storm-Petrel 35 (a number may prove to be Townsend’s)
- Ashy Storm-Petrel 10
- Black Storm-Petrel 150
- Cook’s Petrel 5 (vic. 30-Mile Bank)
- Northern Fulmar 5 (scattered; unusual number for summer)
- Pink-footed Shearwater 105
- Sooty Shearwater 75
- Black-vented Shearwater 570
- Nazca Booby 1 (adult; The Corner)
- Brown Booby 15 (scattered; good count)
- Brown Pelican 4
- Rufous/Allen’s Hummingbird 2
- Blue Whale 1
- Minke Whale 2
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Paul Lehman, Dave Povey, Bruce Rideout, Alex Abela, Peter Ginsburg, Dan Jehl, San Diego
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