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.

This is the trip report for Saturday, 19 September 2020. Forty-two passengers and two leaders met at Seaforth Sportfishing Landing in Mission Bay and boarded the 80-foot Legacy. Our weather forecast was dicey. The wind prediction was west at 10 kts increasing to 15 during the day, but winds in the bay this morning were near calm. The offshore swell, though not large, was a mixed direction and short interval. We made the decision to push as far offshore as quickly as possible, then work our way inshore with the weather and seas at our back. The Legacy is a bit quicker boat than the usual, so we made a beeline west. This was not the most comfortable ride, but we traded the shortest distance out for a much better ride in the afternoon when the winds did in fact match the forecast. We did not tarry on the many Black-vented Shearwaters we found just out of the bay. These are our local shearwater, typically seen inshore and by far the most numerous species for the day. We had much better looks in the afternoon on our return. 

We did see a few Pink-footed Shearwaters and distant Black Storm-Petrels on the way out, but stuck with the plan to get offshore before the winds arrived. Fortunately, an adult female Brown Booby came in near the bow and circled around the right side as we passed. The bird even made a pursuit plunge while we watched. She missed breakfast on that dive. Sexes of Brown Booby in our local subspecies brewsteri are easily separable: the adult females have an all brown head and neck with a yellow bill and facial skin, while the males have a frosted gray head and bluish facial skin. The frosted white head can be discerned at great distance even with the naked eye. The danger there, in the excitement of a flyby adult male Brown Booby, is that it might get called a Blue-footed Booby. That species is far more rare here. Now that Booby sightings are somewhat regular on pelagic trips off southern California, study of booby differences prior to a trip is a must. Today this female was the trip’s only Brown Booby. 

We made it most of the way across the San Diego Trough with not a lot to show but were now confident that we could make the Thirty Mile Bank before the wind made travel farther west difficult if not impossible. The call went out that a Red-footed Booby was coming up the wake, then high along the right side of the boat, and finally over the bow and off to our front. Nice looks at a great bird for San Diego, or anywhere in California. This bird was an immature with an all “coffee with cream” colored body and a pinkish bill base. No red feet at this age. Red-footed Booby is smaller billed, rounder headed, and daintier-looking than our other booby species. Red-footed Booby has a widespread distribution in the tropics. There are several subspecies, several color morphs, and different plumages at different ages. Any adult booby with red feet should not be a difficult identification, though the feet are not always seen when the bird is in flight. Subadults can be more challenging, but the pink base of the bill is a great help here. This Red- footed Booby was the best bird for the day. Like all species of boobies, they have been on the increase in recent years with warming waters.

The Thirty Mile Bank turned out to be a bit of a dud today.  We circled north along the ridge, where on past trips we’ve had rafts of storm-petrels. Today a few scattered Black and Leach’s Storm-Petrels were the best we could do. Moving south we picked up a few more birds, including a few more Pink-footed Shearwaters and a couple of Pomarine Jaegers,but overall it was fairly quiet. We did try a brief run to the west to the area we call the “Corner”. We had no particular target species there, and as the wind was now approaching the forecasted speeds, we gave that up and moved east. That direction had a more comfortable ride. Almost immediately we had a smallish jaeger come racing down the left side of the boat and into the stern, and was gone. Good thing Jimmy McMorran was fast on the camera. The two white outer primary shafts, the stubby thick bill, and scaly under-tail coverts and belly revealed that it was an immature Long-tailed Jaeger. This can be another tough species to find inside the Southern California Bight. Most migrate well to the west of us, often following along with the Arctic Tern migration. We did pick up a few terns today, but all were identified as Common Terns.  They are favorite target with pirating jaegers. After a couple more Pomarine Jaegers, we picked up our first all dark Parasitic Jaeger, with the standard short, pointed, central tail feathers. Not a bad day for jaegers, with all three species and maybe a dozen or so individuals, though not all close enough to identify. 

Paul Lehman was sharp-eyed as we approached the outer edge of the Nine Mile Bank. First he picked up on a number of Black Storm-Petrels, then on a few smaller Least Storm-Petrels. Black Storm-Petrels are our default storm-petrel. We see them around all the deep-water escarpments and canyons, sometimes in the thousands, and at times close enough to shore to be seen by the coast watch folks with scopes. They are large and dark brown or black as the name implies. They have a steady bounding nighthawk like flight and can sail and glide with the wind to almost mimic a small shearwater. They look big winged and short tailed. 

Least Storm-Petrels are in some ways like a miniature version of a Black Storm-Petrel, appearing big winged, short tailed (often looking almost tailless), but if seen well, the tail is actually wedge-shaped, unlike our other species here, which have a notched tail. Least Storm-Petrel’s flight style is a deep steady wing stroke, like that of a small bat. Their tiny size is pretty unmistakable when seen together with Black Storm-Petrels. Both Black and Least Storm-Petrels are primarily Mexican breeders. Black Storm-Petrels breed on the Coronado Islands just to our south, but a few breed north of the border to Santa Barbara Island. Least Storm-Petrels nest on islands well down the western Baja California coast and into the Sea of Cortez, where they can be seen in very large numbers at times. Here off San Diego they can be somewhat regular in small numbers in the fall, but are sporadic from year to year: in some yearsthey show up in big numbers, while in others years they are absent completely. It was nice to count about six on the outer Nine Mile Bank today.

We moved up the bank to the northwest, picking up a solo Sooty Shearwater, which was odd as they were present in good numbers in the spring and early summer. They move north through our waters and then return to the southern hemisphere by another route, but it is not at all unusual to get a handful in the fall. We also got our only Sabine’s Gull for the day. This bird was a juvenile. Sabine’s Gulls are arctic breeders, and September is usually a prime month to see them here. This year many adults were seen moving through in early August. Not sure what that means for their breeding this year, but at least this young one was a product of the season. Speaking of lone birds, only had one Red Phalarope today! That’s just odd. We had plenty of Red-necked Phalaropes but only having a single Red Phalarope in September is just strange. Maybe all this smoke we’ve suffered through has botched up their movements this fall. Any way, having only one Red Phalarope, one Sooty Shearwater, and one Sabine’s Gull was just odd.

We did have one more ONE! This species is always hoped for and when seen is usually well offshore and rarely as a solo bird. We certainly did not expect a Buller’s Shearwater two and a half miles off Sunset Cliffs while on our way back into Mission Bay. It was startling to see this beautiful shearwater away from its more usual open ocean haunt. Buller’s Shearwaters are another southern hemisphere breeder and used to be called New Zealand Shearwater. They are a brilliant white below, blue gray above, have a classic dark gray M pattern to the upper wing, and a capped head. They are slim, with a buoyant and easy flight style. It was a great bird to end the day on and it cooperated by allowing photos on the water and in the air.

So today might have lacked in quantity but we certainly made up for it in quality, with a Red-footed Booby, Long-tailed Jaeger, Least Storm-Petrels, and a Buller’s Shearwater. NOT A BAD LIST!  The ocean made us pay with rough seas but gave back with some very nice birds. We did look at the south Mission Bay Jetty on the way in and spotted a Black Oystercatcher and a Black Turnstone.

Dave Povey

Species Lists

Birds seen in Mission Bay

Black Oystercatcher

Black Turnstone

Least Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

Willet

Heermann’s Gull

Western Gull

Forster’s Tern

Royal tern

Elegant Tern

Brandt’s Cormorant

Double-crested Cormorant

Brown Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Little Blue Heron

Birds seen offshore

Red-necked Phalarope

Red Phalarope

Pomarine Jaeger

Parasitic Jaeger

Long-tailed Jaeger

Sabine’s Gull

Heermann’s Gull

Western Gull

California Gull

Common Tern

Elegant Tern

Leach’s Storm-Petrel

Black Storm-Petrel

Least Storm-Petrel

Buller’s Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

Pink-footed Shearwater

Black-vented Shearwater

Brown Booby

Red-footed Booby 

Brandt’s Cormorant

Brown Pelican

Marine mammals

Minke Whale

Common Dolphin

California Sea Lion

Fish

Shark sp. 

Mola mola (Ocean Sunfish)

California Flying Fish

This is the report for the August 16, 2020 Buena Vista Audubon pelagic trip.

Twenty-seven passengers and two leaders met at Seaforth Landing in Mission Bay for our 7:00 AM departure. Seaforth is not a new location for pelagic trips, as this is the location for the San Diego Audubon Bird Festival trips each winter, but it is a new dock for our trips. Check in and orientation were all done with appropriate social distancing and seemed to go smoothly, with facemasks were worn by all.

The 80 ft. Legacy is a new boat for us, and unlike all other local pelagic birding charters we have used, is not a fishing boat. The Legacy was built in Washington State as a tour-type boat and is now used mainly for whale watching. Like anything new, this boat presents some challenges, but the positives aspects include abundant seating; a large salon area out of the weather with large windows; a speed of 11-12 knots compared to the usual 8.5 kts; and better visibility and space for the group leader on the intercom. Best of all, there is no competition with fishing charters for trip scheduling.

We loaded-up and departed to check out the Mission Bay bait receivers just beyond the docks, where we found the usual suspects, such as pelicans, cormorants, herons, egrets, and gulls. Departing the bay’s jetty was smooth, although a last minute change to the forecast gave us a southwest breeze that increased during the day, giving us a crosshatched sea surface that made the ride less comfortable than we’d expected. Nothing serious, but we get spoiled with nice seas so much of the time. This also made finding small alcids on the surface tough before we drove over them.

The first “seabird” offshore was a group of Red-necked Phalaropes along the scum line from the tide change this morning. The first few were followed by a half dozen more, then by more and more extending off into the distance. Red-necked Phalaropes are early returnees from subarctic breeding areas. They spend the majority of their lives at sea picking plankton from the surface. They pass through here in the fall and are largely south of us by early winter.  We also had a few Red Phalaropes today, generally a little farther offshore than the Red-necked. Red Phalaropes breed higher in the arctic and arrive in numbers later in migration. Most years a few winter locally. The next seabird seen was Black-vented Shearwater. These guys are our local shearwater. They are most abundant in the near-shore waters, but a few scattered birds can be found well out into the California Bight. Black-vented Shearwaters breed on a few islands off the west coast of Baja California. Post breeding dispersal is into our area and as far north as Point Conception. Their numbers will increase into fall and winter, when they often become abundant, and are often seen in large numbers from shore. Mass feeding concentrations are occasionally seen that may range into the tens of thousands. They were the most common seabird we saw offshore today.

We arrived at the north end of the Nine Mile Bank to find a little more life. As we moved off into the deep-water side of the bank, we found a mix of Pink-footed, Sooty, and Black-vented Shearwaters. Pink-footed and Sooty Shearwaters are wanderers from the southern hemisphere. Actually, wanderer is the wrong word as they come here with purpose: They feed, fatten, and molt here, then return south to breed in the southern hemisphere summer. Pink-footed Shearwaters are from the Juan Fernandez Islands off Chile, while Sooty Shearwaters breed on a number islands off Australia, New Zealand, and South America. Some of these Sooties may have the animal world’s longest annual migration, as shown by some satellite-tagged birds that have done a figure eight transit of the entire Pacific Ocean. Pink-footed Shearwaters increase here in the summer and fall before returning south. Sooty Shearwaters pass through here in their biggest number in spring then decline into fall.

Our trip took then us out across the San Diego Trough. This is a ten-mile wide, 3500 ft. deep, trough that runs mainly northwest to southeast. The bottom here is flat and featureless, which often makes it the quietest portion of the trip, but once in a while it will turn up some interesting birds. Today it provided our only look at Sabine’s Gulls. These are beautifully patterned black, white, and gray gulls that live in a world of rather dull brown and gray seabirds. Sabine’s Gulls breed in the high Arctic and those migrating down the west coast of North America spend the winter off the west coast of South America. We also got a good look at a Pomarine Jaeger that was sitting among a group of resting Pink-footed Shearwaters. Pomarine Jaegers are also Arctic breeders. “Poms” as they are often called, are our most common jaeger in the offshore waters. We sometimes get large numbers of them during migration and usually have a few stay for the winter. They are quite capable of catching their own food but prefer to pirate their food from terns, small gulls, and shearwaters.

Crossing the Trough we arrived at the edge of the Thirty Mile Bank, a two thousand foot rise from the floor of the trough, with a few spots along the ridge rising to within 750 feet of the surface. There were a fair number of storm-petrels here, including three of our expected storm-petrel species. The large, big-winged, short tailed, and all dark Black Storm-Petrels breed on our local islands off Baja California. Black Storm-Petrels are far and away the most numerous storm-petrels, ranging from the inshore waters out to perhaps 60 miles or so. A few Black Storm-Petrels were seen today as close as the inside of the Nine Mile Bank. Next seen were a few Leach’s Storm-Petrels. Most of these were the chapmani subspecies of Leach’s. The white rump patch is highly variable from bird to bird. A white smudge on the sides of the rump is the most common pattern, but it can range from all dark to bright white, usually divided by a dark strip down the middle of the rump. These birds have a rather dark brown body, long narrow wings, and a medium-length forked tail. They are smaller than the Black Storm-Petrels and have a manic, rapid, zig-zaggy flight compared to the more relaxed flight of a Black Storm-Petrel.

The last of the three regular storm-petrels today was the Ashy Storm-Petrel. This is a brownish storm-petrel, with a shorter wing and a long tail that may show a buffy rump patch. The under-wing coverts are a light gray. Ashy’s fight style is fast and rather direct, with a shallow wing beat. They are smaller than Black Storm-Petrels and a little less boat friendly. Generally we see more Leach’s Storm-Petrels in the late summer and fall, and more Ashy Storm-Petrels in the spring and early summer. Black Storm-Petrels are here from late winter until early November.

Then, just to liven things up a bit, we had a Least Storm-Petrel as we worked our way up the bank later in the day. This is a Mexican species that barely makes it into California’s waters. We got a very nice, though rather brief, look at it. Least Storm-Petrels are tiny, all dark, “big” winged, and short-tailed, sometimes looking like they have no tail as they move rapidly away with a steady deep wing beats. We search for these each year and sometimes miss them or see very few. Then, in other years, we may see very large numbers on the Thirty Mile Bank. Least Storm-Petrels associate regularly with Black Storm Petrels, less so with our other two species of storm-petrel.

While we were sorting through the storm-petrels, Paul Lehman called out an Arctic Tern over the PA system, close in at 11 o’clock. It turned out there were actually two adults – great birds for San Diego waters. Arctic Terns are another northern breeder and much of the western population passes well off our shore, often out over the shelf edge some 150 miles to our west. Few make it into the Southern California Bight, which makes them a tough bird to get in San Diego waters.

We drove over the high part of the Thirty Mile bank and into the “Corner”. This area is the spot where the border between the United States and Mexico makes a radical left hand (southerly) turn. This is also the spot where San Diego County and Los Angeles meet. In the old days, once you were three nautical miles from shore you were in international waters. Then, in 1982, that changed to a 12 nm contiguous zone and a 200 nm economic zone. This led to a change in the international and County borders offshore: between Point Loma and the Coronado Islands; between the Coronado Islands and San Clemente Island; and finally between San Clemente Island and Guadalupe Island. The end result was this sharp bend in the border and the creation of the area we now call The Corner. It also meant that San Clemente Island was in LA County, with the County line half way between the Island and San Diego. Complicated? Yes.  Anyway, we found two more terns on a floating patch of kelp. These were LA County Common Terns. In spite of the name, they are not all that common. Care must be taken distinguishing Common Terns from the very similar Arctic Tern. A complete treatise on the difference is best left to the field guides, but I find that the easiest feature to start with is the underwing, which shows a smudgy black trailing edge to the primaries in Common Terns, and a very thin and neat black edge on in Arctic Terns. Common Terns often show a dark wedge in the upper primaries as well, where the Arctic does not. Overly simple, but useful. We did get some additional Common Terns back in San Diego county later in the day.

We also had a bit of a surprise with a flyby Pelagic Cormorant out here in no-man’s-land. In spite of the name, Pelagic Cormorants are not at all pelagic. They are usually found close to shore, and along rocky coasts. Like all cormorants, they must return to land to dry their feathers, otherwise they can become waterlogged, unable to fly, and will sink if they sit on the sea surface for too long. So what’s it doing out here at the Thirty Mile Bank? Our best guess is that it was transiting between Islands in the  Southern California Bight.

We jogged back and forth up the bank for a nice look at a couple of Red Phalaropes, then stumbled on a pair of Craveri’s Murrelets, which flushed ahead of us. Craveri’s Murrelets are another Mexican species that most years just make it into Southern California waters. Some years they are absent, others years they move north of us. Paul worked to get us back on these guys, but the crosshatched wind wave and swell made it difficult and we only succeeded in flushing them a second time. Fortunately, we did get on a pair briefly later in the day for a few photos.

Starting back west across the top of the San Diego Trough we came on a Minke Whale that gave us a brief look before disappearing. Minkes are the smallest baleen whale and rather common, though not always seen. Their small blow and stealth attitude make them hard to find, which is helpful as they are the only baleen whale still hunted legally by some counties. Other marine mammals seen throughout the day included both Common and Bottle-nosed Dolphins.

The return to the Nine Mile Bank found several areas of breaking fish and a frenzy of bird activity, consisting mostly of Black-vented Shearwaters, Elegant Terns, and a mix of some others, such as several Brown Boobies. We also had two or three jaegers, including a near adult Long-tailed Jaeger seen right over the top of the boat. This is another species that passes well to our west most and is sometimes missed during migration. This bird caused confusion initially because it showed some dusky feathers in the neck, unlike the clean white throat and neck of an adult. We watched it make a couple of feeble attempts to harass Elegant Terns. They were just a little too big for the Long-tailed Jaeger.

One other jaeger here gave us a little confusion and excitement when the shout went out South Polar Skua! It was actually a very dark Pomarine Jaeger, not skua-like except for the dark coloration and large white wing flashes. Paul corrected our mistake quickly and we moved on to start our return to Mission Bay.

It was a nice mix of birds, a few rarities, and a manageable ocean today. We felt pretty good about the trip overall.

Dave Povey

Species list for Mission Bay:

Marbled Godwit

Willet

Spotted Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

Heermann’s Gull

Western Gull

Caspian Tern

Royal Tern

Elegant Tern

Brandt’s Cormorant

Double-crested Cormorant

Brown Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Barn Swallow

Offshore Birds:

Mourning Dove

Marbled Godwit

Red-necked Phalarope

Red Phalarope

Pomarine Jaeger

Long-tailed Jaeger

Craveri’s Murrelet

Sabine’s Gull

Heermann’s Gull

Western Gull

Caspian Tern

Common Tern

Arctic Tern

Royal Tern

Elegant Tern

Leach’s Storm-Petrel

Ashy Storm-Petrel

Black Storm-Petrel

Least Storm-Petrel

Sooty Shearwater

Pink-footed Shearwater

Black-vented Shearwater

Brown Booby

Brandt’s Cormorant

Pelagic Cormorant

Marine mammals:

Minke Whale

Bottle-nosed Dolphin

Common Dolphin

California Sea Lion

Fishes:

Mako Shark

Mola mola ( Ocean Sunfish)

California Flying Fish

Pacific Bonito

This is the Buena Vista Audubon/San Diego Pelagics trip report for Sunday, October 13, 2019. Thirty-two passengers and six leaders meet at H & M Landing for a ten-hour trip offshore. Leaders were Matthew Binns, Peter Ginsburg, Gary Nunn, Guy McCaskie, Bruce Rideout, and myself. Sea conditions were exceptionally light, with a one foot swell predicted and winds of less than ten knots. The area inside the Channel Islands and off San Diego is often blessed with nice sea conditions, and today was even better than that. I can safely say we suffered more motion inside San Diego Bay due to boat traffic than we did at sea.

Offshore, we encountered mostly pelicans, cormorants, gulls, and terns until we reached the deep water inside the Nine Mile Bank. This area produced nice numbers of Black-vented Shearwaters, an early Northern Fulmar, a couple of Brown Boobies, a Parasitic Jaeger, and several groups of migrating ducks. This area has produced for us all summer and did again today. The Nine Mile Bank also looked good today, with a solo Pink-footed Shearwater, many more Black-vents, and several Common Terns (never common here). But best of all was a black and white booby over a pod of Common Dolphins as we came to the outer edge of the bank. We chased it, but never really caught up to. Fortunately, some of the photographers on the boat got shots that could be blown up to prove it was a near adult Nazca Booby, with it’s characteristic bright orange/pinkish bill. This species, once considered a subspecies of Masked Booby, was exceedingly rare in California waters prior to 2017. Then their numbers exploded here. Thoughts are that food resources in their normal range off the west coast of Panama, Columbia, and Ecuador collapsed, and that other food sources were utilized, such as flying fish chased up by ships transiting along the eastern Pacific, thus making them ship followers/riders into our area, where food is currently abundant. Two even set up shop on south San Diego Bay during the winter of 2017-18 and were seen by hundreds of birders from around the country. This is the third offshore Nazca Booby for us this fall, with several more seen from shore, and yet three more together on San Diego Bay September 6^th, 2019! This is still a very nice sighting, not quite ho hum yet, but no longer frontpage news. We also got very nice looks at a Pomarine Jaeger chasing a tern in this area, which of course was overshadowed by the chase after the booby.

The San Diego Trough was very quiet today. That’s not unusual. This ten mile wide area is over 3,000 feet deep and featureless, so often is devoid of much life, but sometimes turns up good birds and marine life – quality over quantity. Today it was great looks at a pod of Risso’s Dolphins – maybe 25-30 animals, and cooperative. This species of dolphin is not always boat friendly. These guys were right off the bow, and with fairly clear water, were visible both above and below the surface.

Our only alcids today were several Cassin’s Auklets, and as is often the case, seen only at a great distance. It’s easy to try and make them into something more exciting in the early morning low light, but again, photos often sort things out.

The Thirty Mile Bank was also rather quiet today. This bank is really more of a ridge rising up from over 3,000 feet to 700-800 feet along its crest. Like most banks off Southern California, it slants southeast to northwest and was formed by a major fault line. The south end is the closest to shore, being 22 nautical miles from Point Loma. The northern part is about 32 nm west of La Jolla, but closer to San Clemente Island, putting it in Los Angeles County. Historically we have found storm-petrel rafts right on the county line. This summer, those gatherings of resting storm-petrels had been absent here, though we still would see storm-petrels scattered about this area. So I had no expectation of seeing a raft today. Oops! Today there WAS a raft, but not a huge one. They can sometimes number in the thousands or even tens of thousands. This one was maybe 200 at best and they scattered before we could get everyone on them. This raft, as many or most off San Diego, was made up of primarily of Black Storm-Petrels, but two smaller birds split out of the tangle of wings and tails. Thanks to the quick camera work of Nancy Christensen, they proved to be Least Storm-Petrels based on their tiny, big-winged, and short-tailed (almost tailess) appearance. This species is a San Diego specialty, and is abundant some years, but was absent this summer. They often quickly leave the scene once flushed, so not everyone got on them in time. By the way, all were in San Diego County – the county line is about 26.8 nm offshore at this spot, and the raft was 26 nm out.

Heading back to the east, we came on a big Fin Whale for some excellent looks. We worked our way up into the mouth of the La Jolla Canyon, then back south toward the north end of the Nine Mile Bank. We had good numbers of birds here, adding a Sooty Shearwater, more Northern Fulmars, and several jaegers – about evenly split between Pomarine and Parasitic. We also had an adult Herring Gull come in and join the chummed gull flock, which along with a dozen or so California Gulls, represented the first of the wintering gulls to arrive. As we made our way back to the Bay, we drove right by a lone Red-necked Phalarope over the kelp bed. Phalarope numbers have been low this fall.

So that wraps up 2019. We plan a similar schedule of pelagic trips in 2020, so watch this web page for the upcoming schedule.

Dave Povey

Buena Vista Audubon/San Diego Pelagics

Species Totals:

Surf Scoter 8

Common Loon 2

Eared Grebe   3   S.D.Bay

Northern Fulmar   7

Pink-footed Shearwater   22

Sooty Shearwater   1-2

Black-vented Shearwater    400+

Ashy Storm-Petrel   1

Leach’s Storm-Petrel    1

Black Storm-Petrel    100+

Least Storm-Petrel  1-2

storm-petrel sp.  15-20

Brown Booby  3

Nazca Booby    1

Brandt’s Cormorant  14

Double-crested Cormorant    1

Brown Pelican 30

Red-necked Phalarope  1

Phalarope sp. 7

Pomarine Jaeger   4

Parasitic Jeager     5

Jaeger sp.   5

Cassin’s Auklet  1

Alcid sp.   6

Heermann’s Gull  10

Herring Gull   1

California Gull   13

Western Gull    200+

Common /Arctic Tern   3

Royal Tern    32

Elegant Tern  4

Marine Mammals:

Fin Whale

Minke Whale

Large whale sp.

Risso’s Dolphin   25-30

Common Dolphin  200-300

California Sea Lion

We departed H&M Landing at 7 a.m. aboard the 85 ft. Grande, with fifty-one passengers and six leaders. Leaders were Dave Povey, Tom Blackman, Nancy Christensen, Peter Ginsburg, Bruce Rideout, and Justyn Stahl. We checked the San Diego Bay bait receivers for the now nearly three-week old report of a Nazca Booby. No luck there, but it’s always interesting to see the mass of herons, egrets, gulls, pelicans, and the thousand or so Brandt’s Cormorants roosting around these docks.

We moved on to Ballast Point to check for oystercatchers, but again, no luck. They are uncommon here and Point Loma has several miles of habitat for them to get lost. The cobble beach did have an amazing number of Heermann’s Gulls. This Mexican Gull is not unusually here on the point in large numbers. Proceeding out to sea we found a number of Red-necked Phalaropes gathered along the scum lines of the tidal outflow. Further down the channel we had the first of many inshore Black-vented Shearwaters, several Elegant Terns, and the first Brown Booby for the day. Brown Booby is always nice to see but has become a little bit of a ho-hum species for us. They were rare here prior to about 1999-2000, but increased into 2010-2015, and have now settled into being regular in small numbers on most trips locally. Today we would see five, all juveniles.

The deep water inside the Nine Mile Bank had an increase in life, but overall was somewhat slow. This area has held more bird life recently than we were seeing this morning. Nevertheless, we got nice looks at a fair number of Black-vented Shearwaters and both Pomarine and Parasitic Jaegers. The Nine Mile Bank has been quiet all summer, but again we found a few interesting species, including the first Pink-footed Shearwater and the often abundant Black Storm-Petrels. This summer Black Storm-Petrels have been all but missing, and that was the case again today. I am not sure what has changed; Black Storm-Petrels seemed to be in normal numbers this spring (hundreds or thousands), then they moved out of our area and have only been found small numbers since.

We then moved out over the San Diego Trough, a ten-mile wide deep water area without any seafloor features to create upwelling, so it often has little bird life. But when birds are found here, it’s often one of the sought-after species. So, a well-seen and photographed Ashy Storm-Petrel was a nice bonus for the Trough. The Thirty Mile Bank produced nice looks at Long-tailed Jaeger and Common Tern, neither of which is common here. Also seen here, and a fair bit early, was a south-bound Common Loon. The middle part of the bank got us some good looks at Pink-footed Shearwaters. It’s always nice when they follow the boat for the photographers.

We entered L.A. county briefly then after ensuring that we weren’t missing any large storm-petrel rafts, we moved back out over the San Diego Trough once again.  A call of murrelets on the water stopped the boat. We had accidentally split a pair of Craveri’s Murrelets, and although the one bird we got on wanted to fly off, it would not leave its partner. We could hear the pair calling back and forth, and we got good looks as they swam back together to reunite before flying off together. We had two other pairs of small alcids that were poorly seen prior to these, and my best guess is that they were also Craveri’s Murrelets, although a very small number of Cassin’s Auklets have been in the area.

Next, a short distance east of that was a young Rhinoceros Auklet. This guy was not terribly cooperative, diving each time we got close, but I think all hands got reasonable views. Rhinoceros Auklet is not rare here, but most don’t arrive until late October or into November. We continued on a short distance to the east when we came on an area of Common Terns and Sabine’s Gulls. The beautiful little Sabine’s Gulls are the iconic pelagic birds of spring and fall migration. We usually see a few on the September trip, but today was a bonus with twenty plus. Here we had three Sabine’s Gulls together on the water with a tern that escaped our scrutiny. Photos of the three Sabine’s show a smallish tern with them that had a short neck, small bill, translucent flight feathers, and a narrow black trailing edge to the under wing. The upper wing lacked the dark wedge seen on the Common Tern’s wing. This was an Arctic Tern, which is not rare off southern California in fall but tends to stay much further offshore locally (50-60 nautical miles or more offshore). Out there it often is the only tern seen.

I almost forgot to mention the great jaeger show around that area of terns. Several times from the wheelhouse I could scan the horizon and see several jaegers chasing terns in multiple directions. Parasitic Jaegers seemed to be the most numerous today (15), with Pomarine Jaegers a close second (13). Long-tailed Jaegers (5 total), are not rare locally but like Arctic Terns, are more inclined to be farther offshore, so one juvenile on the north end of the Nine Mile Bank was nice. We also had a number of jaegers that escaped identification, so we had well over thirty of all three species on the day, which was more than we’d expected for these local trips.

Then just as we were getting back to the very north end of the Nine Mile Bank the call went up of Red-billed Tropicbird! The bird was high and circling around another area of terns, this time mostly Elegant Terns. It took us a while to get oriented and give chase. That was a bit of a stretch, as the boat only does about 8.5 knots. We did finally see the Tropicbird on the water, got the boat stopped, and got everyone on it. Unfortunately, it was not quite as close as we’d liked so we tried to maneuver closer, the bird decided enough of that and flew off. Odd for a tropicbird, as they are not boat shy as a rule.

The travel down the Nine Mile Bank was mostly uneventful, with lots of Black-vented Shearwaters, more jaegers, and fun close-up looks at a Humpbacked Whale that stole the show with its breaching, tail slapping, and overall antics. Nice weather and seas provided very pleasant conditions for us today and birding was great.

Species seen in San Diego Bay:

Mallard

Rock Pigeon

Heermann’s Gull

Western Gull

Royal Tern

Elegant Tern

Brandt’s Cormorant

Double-crested Cormorant

Brown Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Osprey

Species seen at sea:

Surf Scoter

Common Loon

Pink-footed Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

Black-vented Shearwater

Ashy Storm-Petrel

RED-BILLED TROPICBIRD

Brown Booby

Brandt’s Cormorant

Brown Pelican

Red-necked Phalarope

Pomarine Jaeger

Parasitic Jaeger

LONG-TAILED JAEGER

CRAVERI’S MURRELET

Rhinoceros Auklet

Sabine’s Gull

Heermann’s Gull

Western Gull

Common Tern

ARCTIC TERN

Elegant Tern

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Marine Mammals:

Humpback Whale

Common Dolphin

California Sea Lion

Fish:

Hammerhead Shark

Mako Shark

California Flying Fish

Yellowfin Tuna

Dave Povey

San Diego Pelagics

Buena Vista Audubon

This is the report for the Sunday August 18, 2019, pelagic trip aboard the Grande out of H&M Sportfishing Landing on San Diego Bay. Fifty one passengers, with leaders Tom Blackman, Guy McCaskie, Jimmy McMorran, Gary Nunn, Bruce Rideout, Matt Sadowski, and I, met at the top of the dock, where I did a brief orientation to the boat, then we boarded, ready for our adventure at sea. Conditions where very nice, with great visibility, light breezes, and a marine overcast to deaden the glare early. Temperatures were pleasant.

The trip down the bay was uneventful, with numbers of all three large tern species, Caspian, Royal, and most of all, Elegant Terns. We stopped very briefly for a look at Ballast Point, for a mob of loafing Brown Pelicans and Heermann’s Gulls, both of which are regulars there at low tide. Once offshore, the visibility was excellent, with clear views of the Coronado Islands some 12 miles away. We found an exceptionally flat swell and almost no hint of a breeze. Not a lot of birds in this zone, and the water was cold, 63 degrees and dirty, a bit odd for late summer. There must be a fair upwelling along the coast here. A few of the scum lines had Red-necked Phalaropes scattered about.

Further out into the deep water, inside the Nine Mile Bank, the water warmed slightly to about 67, and life seemed to increase a bit, with first sightings of Black-vented Shearwater and a few Black Storm-Petrels. The water here was still off colored. We crossed the Nine Mile Bank and found it unusually quiet, as was the outer edge. We had a scattering of Black-vents, a Sooty Shearwater, and a few Black Storm-Petrels. The water was still off colored and filled with surf grass, bits of kelp, and the like.

In the middle of the San Diego Trough, things had not improved much, and it wasn’t until we approached the far southern end of the Thirty Mile Bank that we saw an improvement in birds, life signs, and water conditions in general. Here we found lots of Sooties, fair numbers of Pink-footed Shearwaters, Black Storm-Petrels, a couple of Leach’s, a few Red Phalaropes, and several distant murrelet sightings. Then came the call that there was a booby… a RED-FOOTED BOOBY. A nice adult dark morph, first seen and called out by Guy McCaskie. This bird came right up the stern, then seeing the gulls had nothing of interest, swung to the right side and headed north.

About the time everyone had gotten on the now distant booby, it was gone.

Then, a short time later, out of no where, it made another pass at the boat, as if to be sure all hands got a look, gliding this time over the bow and down the left side. Great looks and photos for all hands. Red-footed Booby is a rarity in California; it was not even recorded in the state until 1975. Last year was epic. Prior to 2018, there were only nine accepted records of Red-footed Booby for San Diego County. Then, in 2018, eleven were recorded. We had two on this trip last year. Sightings for the species had dropped off this year, with none reported recently recently. It is no longer a mega-rarity, but certainly a very nice sighting.

We continued west right on the border headed to the “corner”, a sharp bend in the U.S. – Mexico border, and as far west as one can go before entering Los Angeles County due to proximity to San Clemente Island. This area was alive with birds, dolphins, an  Elephant Seal, and a Mako Shark. We also got a couple of distant looks at Craveri’s Murrelets, a closer-in Sabine’s Gull, and a Common Tern. Then came the call of another booby sighting. This one was black and white, so clearly an adult or near adult bird. It made a fairly close approach from behind, then flying down the left side of the boat, but this time it was a one-time flyby and then it was gone. The bill color on this bird was hard to determine because of the glare on that side of the boat side, but photos showed the bright orange and pink bill of a NAZCA BOOBY – yet another species we were unlikely to get in years prior to 2017, with only one accepted record for San Diego County. Then in 2017 we had nine, 2018 yielded five more, with some four additional birds left unresolved as Masked/Nazca types. It was amazing that we had already seen two of the four toughest booby species to get, and yet we still had not seen the more or less expected Brown Booby, which, it turned out, we would miss entirely. Go figure.

This area also turned up a number of good storm-petrel sightings. A cluster of eight Ashy Storm-Petrels was sitting on the water, and best of all, a distant TOWNSEND’S STORM-PETREL was photographed by Gary Nunn. This species is now split from the similar Leach’s Storm-Petrel. These white-rumped Townsend’s are more likely to be confused with Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, or even Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel, than with Leach’s. Townsend’s are compact, dark bodied, and shorter winged than Leach’s. The feet do not extending beyond the tail as in Wilson’s, and the white does not extend to the tip of the tail as in Wedge-rumped. This is a much sought after species, seen regularly in small numbers each fall just to our west, but it is a bit tougher to find them in San Diego County waters.

Traveling west, we seemed to drive out of the area with all the life, so as we were nearing our western limit for the county, I made the decision to turn back to the Thirty Mile Bank, where we planned to work our way north along the bank. That’s when our day’s adventure took a turn.  We often take the boats we charter for these trips for granted. They are well maintained and Coast Guard inspected, they run nearly everyday during the fishing season, and are amazingly reliable. Grande is no exception. But today she reminded us of how complicated the machinery is to move and control an 85ft. boat in this harsh marine environment – we broke the starboard propeller shaft. Both Capt. James and I had heard of it happening, but neither of us had ever experienced it. The problem was that the propeller and shaft had slid back into the now turned rudder, pinning it in a hard turn. The captain and crew quickly checked for water incursion, found none, then assessed the next steps to get us back underway. That required a crewmember to go into the water, tie a rope over the propeller, and those on deck pulled the whole assembly forward and tied it off. After a broken rope, the second try worked. Steering resumed and we were back underway on the port engine – relief. But Captain James felt that a direct return to San Diego Bay was prudent, and that stopping and maneuvering for birds along the way would not be wise. Thank goodness for light seas and a comfortable ride. We did have birds on the way in, and did see a nice selection, but the only new bird was a distant jaeger chasing Elegant Terns. This jaeger’s ability to stay with the tern, no matter how the pursued bird twist and turned, was amazing. The jaeger, once successful in getting it’s victim to cough up it’s catch, went on to the next tern and the next – quite a way to get one’s meals.

We returned to the dock with a nice list for the day, thankful that our adventures turned out well.

Dave Povey

The June 9^th, 2019, Buena Vista Audubon pelagic birding trip on the Grande started off with wild hopes of Cook’s Petrels, given the recent sightings by Dave Povey in nearshore waters off northern Baja California. But the forecast for winds less than 10 knots throughout most of the day would make it much better for alcids.

We headed out of the bay and went straight across the San Diego Trough to the southern end of the 30-mile bank to increase our time in the outer limits of San Diego County waters, where most of the rare birds would be. Although we didn’t get a Cook’s Petrel, this strategy paid off in the end.

On the way out, we had the expected Sooty and Black-vented Shearwaters, as well as unusually good views of Cassin’s Auklets, which are often only distant whirring specks. Scripps’s Murrelet was a target bird for many, and we had good numbers and excellent views of those throughout the day as well.

The big payoff came a few hours into the trip with great views of an adult and apparent juvenile Craveri’s Murrelet. The great views can be attributed to the fact that the juvenile was likely still unable to fly, so the pair would only swim or dive as we approached. We stayed at a distance that afforded excellent views and time for studying the characteristics distinguishing Craveri’s from Scripps’s Murrelets, without unduly stressing the pair. Since this was a target bird for many onboard, an early success set a good tone for the day.

We also had good views of a white-rumped Leach’s Storm-Petrel early on, with several more Leach’s to follow, which allowed for nice comparisons of the structure and flight style with the more abundant Black and Ashy Storm-Petrels. We presume these Leach’s are subspecies chapmani based on the rump-pattern and the fact that it would be early for the more northerly breeding nominate subspecies or the more southerly breeding Townsend’s Storm-Petrel, but we still have a lot to learn about the status and distribution of these storm-petrels.

We had several Least Terns on the 30-mile bank, which is not unusual, but might not be a good sign regarding the availability of appropriately sized baitfish for breeding birds. Normally we would expect birds tending nestlings to forage as close to the nesting grounds as possible, and the 30-mile bank is a fair ways off for such a tiny bird. The biologists monitoring the nesting colonies are always interested in these offshore sightings.

There were some slow periods in the afternoon as we patrolled the 30-mile bank, but a Black-footed Albatross in the mid-afternoon provided a nice bit of excitement. The bird was very cooperative and made several close passes around the boat, affording great views and lots of nice photographs.

The late afternoon provided a nice marine mammal show, with the Common Dolphins doing acrobatics as they approached the boat for some bow riding, and we had good views of Fin and Blue Whales as well – a great end to a very nice day on the water.

Bruce Rideout

Buena Vista Audubon

sandiegopelagics.com

Offshore Species:

Black-footed Albatross: 1 (very good views near the south end of 30-Mile Bank)

Pink-footed Shearwater: 8 (low)

Sooty Shearwater: 180

Black-vented Shearwater: 75

Leach’s Storm-Petrel: 3 (30-Mile Bank)

Ashy Storm-Petrel: 45

Black Storm-Petrel: 450

Pacific Loon: 3 (northbound, basic plumage)

Double-crested Cormorant: 2 (well offshore)

Brandt’s Cormorant: 5

Brown Pelican: 14

Scripps’s Murrelet: 12

CRAVERI’S MURRELET: 2 (an adult and immature bird 30-Mile Bank)

Cassin’s Auklet: 130 (good number for June)

Heermann’s Gull: 2

California Gull: 1

Western Gull: 110

Least Tern: 6 (including several well offshore at 30-Mile Bank)

Elegant Tern: 150

Eurasian Collared-Dove: 1

The first Buena Vista Audubon pelagic birding trip of 2019 departed Sunday on the Grande under cloudy skies, with a relatively light swell and a nice northwesterly breeze – near ideal conditions, particularly for finding alcids, and we found plenty. The highlight for many participants was the excellent views of Scripps’s Murrelets throughout the day, including a pair with two chicks. Although the timing of nesting varies from year to year, probably relating in part to resource availability, this is a fairly early date for fledglings. We also had frequent, though often a bit distant, views of Cassin’s Auklets, so most participants were able to get comfortable with their identification in flight compared to Scripps’s Murrelets. Late in the day, we had one unusual murrelet flush in front of the boat and fly away. Debate ensued as to whether it was an early (by a month!) Craveri’s, or an usual (possibly molting) Scripps’s Murrelet. We are waiting on additional photos of this bird before drawing any final conclusions. Probably the biggest surprise of the day was a Pigeon Guillemot that flew across the bow as we were approaching the Thirty-mile Bank. It’s a bit earlier than expected for a guillemot, and most observations in the County are from sea-watches at Point La Jolla, not from boats that far offshore.

We had all three expected species of shearwaters, with Sooty Shearwaters being the most abundant by far, followed by a dozen or so cooperative Pink-footed Shearwaters, and a few late Black-vented Shearwaters. Black Storm-Petrels were also seen frequently throughout the day, with moderate numbers of Ashy, and a few dark-rumped Leach’s (subspecies chapmani).

The Brown Boobies were not as abundant as they often are, but we had several very cooperative birds that lingered long enough for excellent views and photos – a real treat for many on board.

The whales and dolphins did not disappoint either. We had excellent views of Fin and Blue whales, and the Common Dolphins periodically put on an acrobatic show as they approached the boat for some bow-riding. Unofficial total bird counts for the day are at the end of this post.

Our next trip will be on Sunday, June 9^th. Trip details are on our website, sandiegopelagics.com. We hope to see you on the boat!

Bruce Rideout, San Diego Pelagics and Buena Vista Audubon

Bird Species Totals:

Common Loon                                   2

Pacific Loon                                        30

Double-crested Cormorant              1

Brandt’s Cormorant                          25

Brown Pelican                                   55

Brown Booby                                   2

Red-necked Phalarope                     54

Bonaparte’s Gull                                1

Western Gull                                      209

California Gull                                    5

Heerman’s Gull                                  1

Common Tern                                   3

Caspian Tern                                     4

Royal Tern                                         10

Elegant Tern                                      93

Forster’s Tern                                    1

Least Tern                                          36

Black-vented Shearwater                 6

Pink-footed Shearwater                   11

Sooty Shearwater                              166

Black Storm-Petrel                            121

Leach’s Storm-Petrel                         8

Ashy Storm-Petrel                             48

Scripps’s Murrelet                            90

Scripps’s/Craveri’s Murrelet       1

Cassin’s Auklet                                  117

Pigeon Guillemot                            1

Barn Swallow                                     3

Snowy Egret                                      5

Great Blue Heron                              2

Wilson’s Warbler                              2

Townsend’s Warbler                        1

Marine Mammals

Fin Whale

Blue Whale

Common Dolphin

Possible Guadalupe Fur seal

This is the Buena Vista Audubon and Grande pelagic trip report for October 21, 2018.

Thirty-nine passengers and five leaders meet in front of H & M Landing, in San Diego Bay. We started off the day with a beautiful sunrise. I did the orientation in front of the Point Loma Seafoods Restaurant, and before I could finish, we were enveloped with fog. Where did that come from? The forecast for the day was sunny and warm with very light seas. Fortunately, the second part of that forecast was right. We boarded the Grande and headed out of the commercial basin and into the channel toward a huge glowing ball of sun magnified by the fog. We did have just enough visibility to pick up a few birds as we drove down the channel. Just a very few Elegant Terns were around, with a greater number of Royal Terns. The bait receivers held the usual pelicans, cormorants, gulls, and long-legged waders attracted there for the occasional unintentional handout.

Ballast Point was in particularly thick fog, but our sharp-eyed spotters picked out three Black Oystercatchers. Captain Alex maneuvered us back for a better, though somewhat fuzzy, look. Black Oystercatchers are uncommon but regular rocky shoreline shorebirds farther north. Few make it to Point Loma and they are at best rare here, though oddly more commonly seen on the Coronado Islands just across the Mexican border.

The trip out of the bay was still shrouded in fog but did open up a little. A couple of miles out we had a nice Parasitic Jaeger cross the bow. Oddly this was to be our one and only jaeger on the day.

We also popped some fairly inshore Cassin’s Auklets. This small drab alcid can be rather difficult bird for us to get on some tips – often due to their scarcity, and at times due to their propensity to leave as soon as they see a large boat come over their horizon. Today they would be among the more abundant seabirds we would find, with well over a hundred scattered at all distances.

We also got some good looks at phalaropes. We had both Red Phalaropes and Red-necked Phalaropes; all now in the winter basic plumage and difficult to separate at a distance. Reds turned out to be in the minority for the day, but that will change as fall progresses and the Red-necks retreat farther south.

We were most of the way to the Nine-Mile Bank before we started to get the steady stream of Black-vented Shearwaters. These are our local inshore shearwaters. Small, fast moving, and not usual boat shy, it always seems the first few tantalize us with flash-by looks. Then, as is often the case, we find groups of dozens or even hundreds sitting on the water, or they make multiple passes through the gull flock in the stern for much better looks. Dark above and white below, they remind an east coast birder of their Manx Shearwaters. There was a time in the not too distance past that they were considered the same species. Black-vented Shearwater does have the dark under tail coverts their name implies. We do get a very few Manx Shearwater on the west coast in late winter to early spring. Monterey seems to see them in the fall. We, for whatever reason, do not. Perhaps they pass by us farther offshore or stop above us somewhere then filter south in the winter and into the early spring, when we have a chance to see them. Nevertheless, we look for Manx Shearwaters anytime we get masses of Black-vented Shearwater together.

The Nine-Mile Bank had some life today; in fact it was teeming with life. Our last few trips here this fall had produced little, so I’d planned to shoot on through to the west. The Nine-Mile Bank has been in off-colored water all summer. That off-colored water seemed to hold little sea life. Today the water was clean and clear and full of Black-vented Shearwaters and I could see more building up to our northwest. So, we made a right-hand turn and followed the shearwaters along the bank. They had found a number of spots of anchovy pushed to the surface in defensive balls against the ravenous small tuna attacking them. What a great show. Anchovies in dense masses trying for all their worth to get out of the water, with tuna churning the surface all around them, and the shearwaters feasting on anchovies that escaped the tuna. Just to add to the show, a pod of several dozen Pacific White-sided Dolphina appeared, and at least one Striped Marlin. Not a good day for anchovies. Along with the feeding Black-vented Shearwaters, many more were sitting in groups digesting their meals.

This area had our first Brown Booby of the day; a boldly marked adult female. The western Mexico race of Brown Booby is brewsteri and the adults are separable at a distance as the Males have a white frosted look to the head and neck. Brown Booby has become a locally regular bird since the late 1990’s and we feel slighted if we miss them. Today we had four, and that seems about the expected number.

I would like to say we found all kinds of other interesting seabird species on the Nine-Mile Bank, but the truth is that, except for the regular Western Gulls, a few California Gulls, and a Brandt’s Cormorant or two, this area was mostly a straight on mass of Black-vented Shearwaters. Missing were the Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters, and most of all the Elegant Terns. A month or two back, Elegant Terns would have numbered in the hundreds or even thousands. Pink-footed Shearwaters would be in the dozens, if not hundreds. Both those species have mostly now moved out to the south and were seen in only single digit numbers today. Sooty Shearwaters never were in great numbers this summer and fall, perhaps passing well offshore from us s they moved south.

We finally gave in and moved out to the west across the San Diego Trough and to the south end of the Thirty-Mile Bank. This area usually turns up a steady stream of storm-petrels most years, even into late October. Not today; all we could scrape up was a few scattered stormies. One white-rumped bird was a certain Leach’s Storm-Petrel. but most were just too distance to be certain. Several folks thought they had a Black Storm-Petrel. That’s certainly possible as that would be the most likely storm-petrel in this area, but it seems that most have pulled out early this fall. Black Storm-Petrel numbers never were particularly strong this summer. Most of the birds I saw from the wheelhouse, as distant as they were, appeared to be dark-rumped Leach’s Storm-Petrels, though one might have passed as an Ashy Storm-Petrel. Nevertheless, a half dozen storm-petrels is very weak out here on the Thirty-Mile Bank. A few sharp-eyed photographers got a shot of our one land bird as it spun around the boat; a “Myrtle” Yellow-rumped Warbler. That bird was an awfully long way from land.

Fortunately, we did pick up a few birds on the Thirty-Mile Bank: a Northern Fulmar, Pink-footed Shearwaters, and a couple more Red Phalaropes. Oddly, we even had a few more Black-Vented Shearwaters all the way out here. Black-vents typically stay much more inshore.

Overall the Thirty-Mile Bank was a disappointment today, so we swung back toward the beach, aiming towards La Jolla and the extreme upper end of the Coronado Escarpment, and then rode south along that escarpment ridge. We gained little for birds, though adding many more Cassin’s Auklets, until we reached the north end of the Nine-Mile Bank, where we again were back in the birds. We saw much the same mix as before: Black-vented Shearwaters, Western Gulls, and now an occasional Pink-footed Shearwater. We had lots of activity, with many birds resting on the water. We did pick up a couple more Brown Boobies and some early Bonaparte’s Gulls, but little else to brag about. We did have a stop for a phantom rarity that turned out to be a false alarm – easy to do when a long day of birding is not producing. We returned to San Diego Bay and Grande’s dock. We left in the fog and returned home in the dark. A long day with lots of birds, but relatively few species.

 

 

Birds in San Diego Bay:

Mallard

Brandt’s Cormorant

Double-crested Cormorant

Brown Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Black Oystercatcher

Willet

Whimbrel

Heermann’s Gull

Western Gull

California Gull

Royal Tern

Elegant Tern

 

Birds seen offshore:

Surf Scoter

Common Loon

Loon sp.

Northern Fulmar

Pink-footed Shearwater

Black-vented Shearwater

Leach’s Storm-Petrel

Black Storm-Petrel

Storm-petrel (Oceanodroma) sp.

Brown Booby

Brandt’s Cormorant

Brown Pelican

Greater Yellowlegs

Long-billed Dowitcher

Red-necked Phalarope

Red Phalarope

Parasitic Jaeger

Cassin’s Auklet

Bonaparte’s Gull

Heermann’s Gull

Western Gull

California Gull

Hummingbird sp.

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)

 

Marine Mammals:

Common Dolphin

Pacific White-sided Dolphin

Elephant Seal

California Sea Lion

 

Fish:

Mola mola (Ocean Sunfish)

Skipjack   (tuna)

Broad-billed Swordfish

Striped Marlin

Northern Anchovy

 

Dave Povey

San Diego Pelagics

Buena Vista Audubon

 

This is the Buena Vista Audubon and Grande pelagic trip report for Sunday September 23^rd, 2018. Fifty-seven passengers and six leaders met in front of H&M Landing on San Diego Bay, under overcast skies.

We did a brief orientation then headed down the dock to board Grande. We had a brief delay as two passengers had trouble finding parking. A friendly reminder that late summer and fall parking around the docks at the peak of the fishing season can be challenging. There is plenty of parking further away, but one needs to allow time for the search and the walk. All told the delay affected our departure by a few minutes. We try our best to get off on time each trip. I suggest an ample time cushion to allow for parking and getting checked in. Forty Five minutes at the minimum should do it. A safer and more relaxed hour time cushion is even better.

Captain Alex gave us the safety talk while we were underway, and we headed down the channel for the open ocean. The immediate area of the harbor entrance had some life – mostly Elegant Terns, Brown Pelicans, and a few Brandt’s Cormorants feeding on bait fish here. We did have nice, though somewhat distant, looks at a plunge diving Brown Booby. That species was once only rarely seen here, but is now somewhat expected as they breed on the nearby Coronado Islands. This adult female would be the first of five Brown Boobies seen today.

A call was made about a “V” of waterfowl high up under the overcast. Too distant to call by binoculars, the long lens photographers helped prove them to be a flock of Greater White-fronted Geese. This waterfowl species is an early migrant and these were at the early end of the fall calendar for San Diego County. Digital photography has certainly changed our ability to identify birds at sea, and elsewhere for that matter. Many distant species that would have been written off, or maybe guessed at to family or genus, can now be identified, often with amazing detail. We have now come to rely on these cameras to identify and even add new species to the trip compilations. I often get asked about photography on pelagics and my answer is an emphatic yes. That said, one must recognize the harsh environment and damage salt can do. I do not recommend tripods or the like. I would opt for smaller lenses, which are easier to hold and carry. Shoot first and often, and ask questions later. Always save pictures until you can get them on a bigger screen at home. More than once a mega rarity has been discovered after the trip on the home computer.

We opted to cross the Nine Mile Bank and to head directly to the Thirty-Mile Bank. Inshore areas this year have had warm waters but with a funky color the fishing captains have called “swamp water”. This band of colored water has extended from Central California to Central Baja. This off-colored water has some life in it, but most of the interesting birds have been outside in the slightly cooler cleaner waters.

The approach to the Nine-Mile Bank, the Bank itself, and the drop off on the west side did turn up a few birds. Most notable were multiple Black-vented Shearwaters. These are our local shearwaters; breeders from Mexican Islands some two hundred fifty miles below the border. Most Black-vented Shearwaters nest on one small island called Natividad. Their range at sea is northern Baja and coastal Southern California waters. This small fast moving shearwater, which is dark above and whitish below, is somewhat reminiscent of the east coast’s Manx Shearwater, to which it was once consider conspecific. Black-vented Shearwaters were present in good in numbers, and if we’d stayed inshore, the numbers would have mounted even higher, but we moved west and the Black-vented Shearwater sightings dwindled. Then the first Pink-footed Shearwater was seen. Very similar to the Black vented Shearwater in overall coloration but with a more relaxed fight style, a pink base to the bill, and bright pink feet.

We shortly encountered distant Black Storm-Petrels that let us know we’d reached the outer edge of the bank. We would get greater numbers and better looks at Black Storm-Petrels farther out.

The cry went up that there was a white bird on the water….”TROPICBIRD”! Close in to the starboard bow and still on the water. While we got the boat stopped, the bird got up and crossed the bow then flew down the port side. Lots of photos were taken, along with plenty of oohs and ahs! Rare but somewhat expected in the fall off San Diego, Red-billed Tropicbirds reach their northern limits in the southern Channel Islands. The last two years have been tough for Red-billed Tropicbirds locally. This was the first seen in sometime. Red-billed Tropicbirds are on most Southern California pelagic birders want list, and are always a crowd pleaser. We were happy to get such good looks at this bird and check it off the day’s list.

The 10-mile wide San Diego Trough is usually fairly quiet, and today was no exception, but the excitement of the tropicbird sighting carried us through the sparse areas. Approaching the Thirty-Mile Bank, life suddenly increased notably. A young Sabine’s Gull came up the wake. The majority of these handsome small gulls have already moved through, so it was nice to get this bird. While we were watching the Sabine’s Gull, two adult Long-tailed Jaegers came into the chummed flock. These are dainty buoyant jaegers with neat caps, pale gray uppers, white shafts limited to the outer two primaries, and a long streaming tail, but with no lack of jaeger attitude. They follow the small gulls and terns on the migration to the Southern Hemisphere. We were surprise to have five Long-tailed Jaegers today, as they usually move well offshore to the west of San Diego and are sometimes missed completely by pelagic trips inside the Channel Islands.

The area around the “182”, a high spot at the southern end of the Thirty-Mile Bank, had a little variety, with one of our two Sooty Shearwaters for the day. Three species of storm-petrels were also seen, with Black Storm-Petrel the most abundant. We also had the smaller, paler, Ashy Storm-Petrel, and the bounding erratic Leach’s Storm-Petrels. The Leach’s are the local chapmani subspecies, which often have smudgy white sides to the rump, but are highly variable. It is critical to learn the flight styles of all three species here: Black’s have a big winged look with a deep stroke, short glides, and gentile turns and rises; Ashies have shallow, quick wing strokes and rapid direct flight; and the narrow-winged Leach’s are erratic and nighthawk like, changing speed and direction constantly. Once learned, the otherwise difficult storm-petrel identification challenge can be made a little easier.

North of the “182” we stumbled on our first murrelets of the day. Though we did get the boat stopped, they were directly off the point of the bow, so it was difficult to get many birders on them before they flushed directly away. Photos again proved critical in showing these to be Craveri’s Murrelets. Fortunately, we did get stopped on a second pair in the afternoon and were able to get most everyone on those birds. Craveri’s Murrelets are the most southerly of the murrelets. They are very dark above, white below, and sit low in the water. The dark comes across the face and extends below the longish bill. Often, but not always, they hold their tails up “Ruddy Duck” style. In flight the dusk gray underwings are characteristic, as is the dark shoulder or collar mark at the side of the neck. Both of our other murrelets (Scripps’s and Guadalupe) have bright white wing linings in flight and show more white in the face. Both sit a little higher in the water, looking more like miniature Murres. It was nice to get that often sought-after San Diego specialty nailed down. They have been present in small numbers this summer. Today we had six, and with the light wind chop they are often hard to pick out.

The top of the Thirty-Mile Bank is a series of high spots often locally called the “Ridge”, running for miles northwest to southeast. We often find daytime rafts of storm-petrels along the Ridge, but sometimes nothing, other times a few dozen, once in a while hundreds, and rarely thousands. Today we scored! We got on a raft of perhaps seven or eight hundred storm-petrels. They were mostly Black Storm-Petrels, but with just enough Least Storm-Petrels that they were hard to miss, with maybe 100 – 150 Leasts in total. These tiny Storm-Petrels come off looking for all the world like miniature Black Storm-Petrels. They look all dark, big winged, short tailed, have that deep wing stroke, but unlike Blacks, they do not glide and change wing stroke speed. Least Storm-Petrels have a steady rapid wing beat that has been likened to that of a bat with a straight lined flight. The ocean has a way of distorting size, but once you see a Least Storm-Petrel next to a Black Storm-Petrel there is no question on size. Nice addition to the day’s list, and nice to see enough birds to be confident that all hands saw them.

We explored more of the Ridge to the northwest, without finding any additional gatherings of storm-petrels. After returning to the raft’s original area, we put down an oil slick and did a short drift. We didn’t get much of a response, but we rarely do. I’m not sure why these birds seem slow to pick-up on oil slicks. Perhaps the oil is not a strong enough attractant, or food is too abundant, or maybe it’s that these birds feed mostly at night and rest during the day. We may never know, but it’s clear that our storm-petrels respond differently than they do in other areas of the world.

So, a pretty successful trip! Three of the most sought after fall San Diego specialties were tagged, with all hands seeing them: Least Storm-Petrels, Red-billed Tropicbird, and Craveri’s Murrelets. Add in three species of shearwater, three other species of storm-petrels, multiple Brown Boobies, three species of jaegers, Red and Red-necked Phalaropes, throw in a flock of Greater White-fronted Geese, and what more could we want? Yes, I know, but let’s keep it real.

Well, we did get one more bonus bird – an immature white-bodied booby. Called out as a Masked/Nazca Booby, it came into the chummed gull flock near the Mexican Border on the return to the Nine-Mile Bank. It made a series of passes high and low and around and over the boat. This bird will require review but appears from photos to show the beginning of the bright orange and pink hues in the base of the bill. It also had the immature shading of the head, leaving a broad white collar, and white central the tail feathers, which are more often in Nazca than Masked Boobies. So this bird was likely a Nazca Booby. Crazy!

Great trip, with enough good birds to satisfy most birders.

 

 

Birds seen in San Diego Bay:

 

Mallard

Brandt’s Cormorant

Double-crested Cormorant

Pelagic Cormorant   (seen at the end of the day on the H&M dock)

Brown Pelican

Heermann’s Gull

Western Gull

Caspian Tern

Royal Tern

Elegant Tern

Rock Pigeon

Peregrine Falcon

American Crow

House Finch

 

Birds seen at sea:

 

Greater White-fronted Goose

Northern Fulmar

Pink-footed Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

Black-vented Shearwater

Leach’s Storm-Petrel chapmani

Ashy Storm-Petrel

Black Storm-Petrel

Least Storm-Petrel

Red-billed Tropicbird

Nazca Booby (subject to review)

Brown Booby

Brandt’s Cormorant

Brown Pelican

Red-necked Phalarope

Red Phalarope

Pomarine Jaeger

Parasitic Jaeger

Long-tailed Jaeger

Craveri’s Murrelet

Sabine’s Gull

Heermann’s Gull

California Gull

Western Gull

Common Tern

Elegant Tern

 

Marine mammals:

 

Small whale sp. (possible Minke Whale)

Common Dolphin

California Sea lion

 

Fish:

 

Mola mola

Flying Fish

Striped Marlin

 

Dave Povey

San Diego Pelagics

Buena Vista Audubon

 

Photos ©Bruce Rideout