| 2010 San Diego Bird Festival |
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| Black-footed Albatross offshore downtown San Diego 7 Mar 2010 San Diego Bird Festival Pelagic (c) Matt Sadowski |
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3 Pelagic Day-Trips Offshore San Diego To The
Nine Mile Bank and Los Coronados Islands |
By Terry Hunefeld
(San Diego) The San Diego Bird Festival chartered the 85-foote live-aboard Grande for three day-trips from Shelter Island. Who would have thought we could top last year's BirdFest pelagic that had two Manx Shearwaters and a Blue-footed Booby circling the boat?
But top it we did with four San Diego County Black-footed Albatrosses - all less than 14 miles from the mainland, one just 6 miles south of Point Loma and 5 miles west of Imperial Beach. How do you top that? Throw in a Brown Booby only 2.5 miles off Point Loma and a Laysan Albatross 5 miles south of the Mexican border, 4.5 miles north of North Coronados Island, 11 miles off the coast of Tijuana and you have an incredible Bird Festival.
All three trips had great views of Bonaparte's Gulls, Parasitic and Pomarine Jaegers, Xantus's Murrelets, Cassin's and Rhinoceros Auklets, three species of loons and three species of cormorant. The wintering Long-tailed Duck at Ballast Point was missing in action Thursday but seen Saturday and Sunday with Surf Scoters. A high count of 30 Brown Boobies were seen on Saturday's trip.
On Saturday and Sunday, Clay Taylor and Bruce Webb of Swarovski Optics brought a huge case of binoculars aboard for participants to try in real time, under real life conditions. The San Diego Audubon thanks Swarovski for their ambitious and generous support of our pelagic programs.
We recommend the birding gear and birding reports provided by Optics4Birding. Read their report of the March 2010 San Diego Bird Festival pelagic trip.
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| Laysan Albatross near the Los Coronados Islands just south of the Mexican border (c) Steve N.G. Howell |
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| March 4, 2010 Trip Track courtesy of Matt Sadowski |
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Our Thursday 5-hour trip started out with a great assortment of birds: Black-vented, Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters were fun to watch.
We played hide and seek with a young Fin Whale before getting good looks at it as the west edge of the Nine Mile Bank. We had just resumed following the drop-off south when, to everyone's delight, a Black-footed Albatross flew into the wake.
Rhinoceros Auklets were plentiful all day. We followed two more Fin Whales along the drop-off just before we turned east. As we came east over the bank we found some Cassin's Auklets and two Xantus's Murrelets.
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| March 6, 2010 Trip Track courtesy of Matt Sadowski |
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With smoother seas and more time to explore the Nine Mile Bank, Saturday's 9-hour trip found our first of 10 Xantus's Murrelets for the day well east of the Nine Mile Bank. 2 Mew Gulls and several Bonaparte's Gulls were treats for many. We found our only Pink-footed Shearwater of the day and a Red Phalarope at the east edge of the Nine Mile.
As we proceeded southeast down the Nine Mile we encountered Risso's Dolphins and 3 Humpback Whales. We paralleled the border for a few miles to help participants get better looks at Cassin's Auklets and Xantus's Murrelets in U. S. waters with good success.
Then we turned south into Mexico and crossed the Coronado Canyon on the way to the Los Coronados Islands to count Brown Boobies. On and near the islands we counted a total of 30 Brown Boobies and 5 Black Oystercatchers. One female Elephant Seal was found snoozing on the back side of Middle Island.
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Sunday's trip was exciting by a number of different standards. Golden California Sunshine was falling out of the sky as we boarded Grande. All day long we managed to skirt most of the rain showers that plagued the mainland. We photographed several really cool waterspouts approximately 3 miles away from Grande but could get no closer.
After views of Fin Whales, Xantus's Murrelets and Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters, we crossed the border into Mexico to find a Black-footed Albatross. As you can see on the trip track, we turned north to see if we could get it to follow us across the border, which it did, but at a great distance away.
We entered a zone of Xantus's Murrelets that helped give us a day-count of 31. Captain James was able to bring us pretty close to many of these seabirds, listed as threatened in California and endangered in Mexico. Fewer than 10,000 breeding Xantus's Murrelets are thought to exist, making them one of the rarest seabirds in the world. Light pollution from the commercial squid fishing boats anchored at night off the Channel Islands comprise a serious threat to the Xantus's population, as these seabirds are attracted to and disoriented by the bright lights used at night by these commercial vessels.
A short time later, a Northern Fulmar emptied out the galley. Most participants were still on deck when a Laysan Albatross came blasting by. The photos say more than a trip report ever could.
Shortly thereafter we photographed a dark bellied Shearwater that looked promising for Short-tailed, but too close to call by some of the leaders. After counting 24 Brown Boobies in Mexico at and around the islands, we crossed the border into the United States to find not one but two Black-footed Albatrosses well in U. S. waters.
After all the excitement died down we thought that was it for the day until we encountered a pod of Pacific White-sided Dolphins followed by a San Diego County Brown Booby only 2.5 miles south of Point Loma.
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| Courtesy of Matt Sadowski and Jon Feenstra |
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4-Mar |
6-Mar |
7-Mar |
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| Brant |
8 |
37 |
5 |
| Mallard |
-- |
1 |
2 |
| Greater Scaup |
-- |
-- |
1 |
| Lesser Scaup |
-- |
2 |
3 |
| Surf Scoter |
90 |
156 |
150 |
| Long-tailed Duck |
-- |
1 |
1 |
| Bufflehead |
2 |
20 |
4 |
| Red-breasted Merganser |
1 |
-- |
2 |
| Red-throated Loon |
1 |
3 |
4 |
| Pacific Loon |
3 |
1 |
3 |
| Common Loon |
2 |
4 |
5 |
| Eared Grebe |
1 |
4 |
2 |
| Western Grebe |
3 |
21 |
5 |
| Laysan Albatross |
-- |
-- |
1 |
| Black-footed Albatross |
1 |
-- |
2 |
| Northern Fulmar |
-- |
-- |
1 |
| Pink-footed Shearwater |
2 |
1 |
4 |
| Sooty Shearwater |
2 |
1 |
1 |
| Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwater |
-- |
-- |
1 |
| Black-vented Shearwater |
15 |
16 |
7 |
| Brown Booby |
-- |
30 |
25 |
| Brown Pelican |
20 |
30 |
50 |
| Brandt's Cormorant |
660 |
500 |
400 |
| Double-crested Cormorant |
2 |
4 |
4 |
| Pelagic Cormorant |
1 |
7 |
7 |
| Great Blue Heron |
3 |
4 |
2 |
| Great Egret |
2 |
5 |
5 |
| Snowy Egret |
6 |
5 |
4 |
| Osprey |
1 |
-- |
1 |
| American Coot |
1 |
-- |
-- |
| American x Black Oystercatcher (hybrid) |
-- |
-- |
1 |
| Black Oystercatcher |
-- |
5 |
2 |
| Wandering Tattler |
-- |
-- |
3 |
| Willet |
6 |
-- |
1 |
| Whimbrel |
-- |
-- |
1 |
| Marbled Godwit |
2 |
-- |
1 |
| Black Turnstone |
-- |
2 |
4 |
| Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher |
-- |
-- |
2 |
| Red Phalarope |
2 |
2 |
-- |
| Bonaparte's Gull |
9 |
8 |
4 |
| Heermann's Gull |
15 |
65 |
20 |
| Mew Gull |
-- |
2 |
-- |
| Ring-billed Gull |
3 |
2 |
2 |
| Western Gull |
65 |
100 |
200 |
| California Gull |
40 |
20 |
15 |
| Herring Gull |
-- |
1 |
2 |
| Glaucous-winged Gull |
-- |
-- |
1 |
| Forster's Tern |
-- |
2 |
-- |
| Royal Tern |
1 |
6 |
8 |
| Elegant Tern |
-- |
2 |
3 |
| Pomarine Jaeger |
2 |
3 |
2 |
| Parasitic Jaeger |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| Pomarine/Parasitic Jaeger |
1 |
2 |
-- |
| Xantus's Murrelet |
2 |
10 |
31 |
| Cassin's Auklet |
17 |
7 |
34 |
| Rhinoceros Auklet |
24 |
19 |
24 |
| Rock Pigeon |
3 |
10 |
5 |
| Amazona sp. |
2 |
-- |
-- |
| Belted Kingfisher |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| American Crow |
2 |
-- |
-- |
| Common Raven |
-- |
-- |
2 |
| Rock Wren |
-- |
-- |
1 |
| House Finch |
-- |
-- |
1 |
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| We dodged a few rainshowers and waterspouts on Sunday |
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| Waterspout (c) "Adak John" Puschock |
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| Waterspout (c) "Adak John" Puschock |
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