By Dave Povey
(San Diego) Thomas Blackman, Peter Ginsburg, Gerald Kooyman and Dave Povey did a loop around the Nine mile Bank, see the GPS track dated 6-12-09. We worked from south to nort then back south again.
Winds were light, we were under heavy overcast all day, and the swell was 2-3 ft. air temps about mid 60's and the sea surface temp at 64.1 to 65.0 F ( remaining cooler as in spring of 2007, and 2008).
List of species seen:
Pacific Loon 1 North bound
Pink-footed Shearwater 119
Sooty Shearwater 232
Black Storm Petrel 2000 Maybe 90 birds seen away from the large raft inside the middle portion of the Bank ( in the same area the May 16th Grande trip saw 500 of them ).
Brown Pelican 72
Brown Booby 1 Adult male seen in U.S. waters off 8 miles from Pt. Loma 32.3504 -117.2169.
Brandt's Cormorant 5
Whimbrel 2 Flying high and southeast at 10 miles from Pt. Loma
Heermann's Gull 23 All but 1 in adult breeding plumage
Western Gull 100
Caspian Tern 2
Royal Tern 1
Elegant Tern 65
Least Tern 45 More than 1/2 seen in the 7-10 mile area from Pt. Loma.
Xantus' Murrelet 5 1 chick seen with 3 adults south of Coronado Canyon
Cassin's Auklet 186 Most inside the middle portion of the Nine Mile Bank
Rhinoceros Auklet 1 health appearing juvenile in Mexican Waters
Marine Mammals
1 Minke Whale
8-10 Bottle-nosed Dolphin
20 California Sealions
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