San Diego Nine Mile Bank
and Coronados Islands

By W. Terry Hunefeld

(San Diego) Today, Saturday, July 18, 2009, Dave Povey, Terry Hunefeld,  B.J. Stacey and two of B.J.’s friends from New York birded the Nine Mile Bank south of San Diego and the Mexican Los Coronados Islands off Tijuana.  

Motoring out of the harbor from Shelter Island we saw 2 Black Oystercatchers on the Zuniga Jetty.  Wave direction prevented us from angling west to the Nine Mile Bank, so we motored south-southwest to the bank, just north of Coronado Canyon, entering Mexican waters before we reached the juicy portion of the Nine Mile Bank.  

Just across the border we entered a several square mile feeding & life zone, rich with Sooty Shearwaters (400+) Elegant Terns (100+) and Common Dolphins.  It was in this area between the international border and the deep water Coronado Canyon that we found Cassin’s Auklets (4), Pink-footed Shearwaters (4) and Black Storm-Petrels (24).    

At the Coronados Islands we counted more than two dozen downy Western Gulls, 24 BROWN BOOBIES, 10 Black Oystercatchers, a hybrid Black x American Oystercatcher (mostly Black) and a Peregrine Falcon.  

Pelagic Species List  (more than a kilometer offshore of the mainland or islands)

US/Mexico
Sooty Shearwater 10/450
Pink-footed Shearwater 0/4
Black Storm-Petrel 2/27
Brown Booby 0/24
Brown Pelican 18/22
RN Phalarope 0/12
Black Oystercatcher 2/10
Western Gull  50/100
Heermann’s Gull 2/8
Least Tern  1/2
Elegant Tern 46/120

Cassin’s Auklets 0/4
Common Dolphin 100
Mola Mola 1