By Todd McGrath
The September 25th Condor Express trip had a simple mission - find the large group of storm-petrels reported southeast of Anacapa Island. The weather was ideal. The seas were calm, what could go wrong? After a beautiful start to the day with many Black-vented, Pink-footed and a few Sooty Shearwaters, we were ready. After 3 species of Jaeger, and a South Polar Skua plus plenty of common and Bottlenose Dolphins, we were in the warm water. On cue a few Blacks and one poorly seen Least Storm-petrel were the first wave of what I was confident would be many more storm-petrels. Then came the FOG. It was only about 30 feet high, we could see the blue sky straight above the whole time. But storm-petrels don't fly that high. After a frustrating hour of searching through the FOG we decided to head west, were the sky was clear and the seas were blue.
My good friend Debi Shearwater has taught me much, but nothing more important than this simple point: take what the day gives you. Even if it is FOG? Yes. Of course Debi would have found the storm-petrels in the FOG, she can smell them. Don’t laugh I have seen her do it. But I have allergies. I don't smell storm-petrels, I can barely smell whales. So off to take what the day gives us. After about 15 miles of FOG we could see Santa Cruz Island. There was FOG to the west, FOG to the east, and FOG to the south, so we went north. It was a good choice.
Not too long after getting clear of the FOG, I suggested heading northeast to Anacapa, perhaps we would find a Brown Booby there. I no sooner said that when American Cetacean Society luminary Bernardo Alps said, “there's a Brown Booby right here”. It was indeed a Brown Booby. It was a long way off. Before I could grab the microphone Capt Matt launched the Condor Express into hyperspace. After a minute of 30 knot warp speed, The Booby was nicely off our starboard front quarter. I could hear the OOhs and AAhs. Well Done Bernardo! Well done Capt. Matt!
We decided to continue towards Anacapa. I joked that perhaps we would find another booby. There were lots of Jaegers, and Pink-footed Shearwaters to look at. After rounding the east end of Anacapa Island, we saw a huge feeding flock of gulls, pelicans, cormorants, and Black-vented and Sooty Shearwaters. A Minke Whale surfaced amidst the chaos. Bait fish were jumping. “Let’s head over there” I said. As we approached, Janet Scheel pointed toward the back and said something that sounded like “Blue-footed Booby”. I spun around as Blue-footed Booby was announced over the PA. The Booby flew away from us back toward Anacapa. We were about to launch into hyperspace again, but the booby landed near the lighthouse on Anacapa, and soon we were enjoying wonderful views of our second sulid of the day.
We spent some time getting killer looks at shearwaters, a few phalaropes, jaegers, and still more dolphins on our way back to port. We had taken what the day had given us. The day had been kind.
We have had many kind days on the Condor Express this year. Our March trip had 2 Parakeet Auklets. Our May trip had a Horned Puffin and our July trip had a beautiful Red-billed Tropicbird, as well as 136 Cook’s Petrels. The last 2009 trip on the Condor express is Nov 7. It will be a 12-14 hour trip to deepwater to look for Stejneger’s and Cook’s Petrels, or whatever the day gives us.
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