| Oxnard to the Channel Islands |
By: Jon Feenstra
This past Saturday, June 9, was the annual Los Angeles Audubon Society Island Scrub-Jay/pelagic trip. We left Oxnard harbor at approximately 8AM and traveled aboard the Island Packer’s boat, Vanguard, to Prisoner’s Harbor on Santa Cruz Island. We wandered around the island for about an hour watching the Scrub-Jays before re-boarding our boat and heading back out to sea. We drove south of the gap between Santa Cruz and Anacapa Islands to a rich current break that we rode east to nearly the tip of Anacapa Island. We then approached the island and followed its rocky shoreline along much of the east end, after which we departed for home, arriving back at the dock at 5PM.
Highlights (other than the Island Scrub-Jay) were: a Flesh-footed Shearwater, 2 Red Phalaropes, hundreds of each Xantus’s Murrelets and Cassin’s Auklets, and a (at least mostly) American Oystercatcher on the south side of Anacapa Island. Numerical details below.
We also encountered about 20 Bottlenose Dolphin and a pod of Risso’s Dolphin that may have numbered close to 200 individuals.
|
| List 1: Pelagic waters: covering the ride between Oxnard Harbor and Santa Cruz Is., the current break south of Anacapa Is., and the ride from Anacapa Is. back to the harbor.
Northern Fulmar 1
Pink-footed Shearwater 2
Flesh-footed Shearwater 1
Sooty Shearwater 46
Black Storm-Petrel 38
Brown Pelican 185
Brandt’s Cormorant 114
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Distant cormorant sp. 480
Red-necked Phalarope 2
Red Phalarope 2
Heermann’s Gull 4
Western Gull 204
Royal Tern 4
Elegant Tern 2
Pigeon Guillemot 6
Xantus’s Murrelet 245
Cassin’s Auklet 318
Rhinoceros Auklet 13
List 2: covering the time on and around Santa Cruz Island (less than 200m from shore)
Surf Scoter 101
Brown Pelican 100
Brandt’s Cormorant 100
Pelagic Cormorant 11
Northern Harrier 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Black Oystercatcher 4
Western Gull 170
Pigeon Guillemot 53
Anna’s Hummingbird 1
Allen’s Hummingbird 5
Northern Flicker 1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 2
Black Phoebe 1
Ash-throated Flycatcher 2
Hutton’s Vireo 3
Island Scrub-Jay 6
Common Raven 1
Barn Swallow 5
Bushtit 1
Bewick’s Wren 2
Orange-crowned Warbler 2
Spotted Towhee 2
Song Sparrow 1
Black-headed Grosbeak 1
House Finch 9
Lesser Goldfinch 1
List 3: covering the shoreline of Anacapa Island
Surf Scoter 19
Brown Pelican 400
Brandt’s Cormorant 426
Pelagic Cormorant 4
Mostly American Oystercatcher 1
Black Oystercatcher 5
Western Gull 700
Pigeon Guillemot 7
White-throated Swift 2
|
|