SoCalBirding.com

By: Jon Feenstra

On Saturday February 28 was the (nearly) annual Los Angeles Audubon
Society pelagic trip to the nearshore waters of L. A. County. We left from
Ports O' Call Harbor in San Pedro and spent the day off the Palos Verdes
Peninsula and in the southern Santa Monica Bay.

The weather was pleasant and the ocean was as calm as a farm pond. We had
numbers of birds with the boat for most of the day. Our singular highlight
was a cooperative Manx Shearwater present in a flock of a few hundred
Black-vented Shearwaters. It provided excellent views both sitting and
flying. On our way back a couple hours later, we swung back through the
shearwater flock and got to see it again.

Knut Hansen took some great photos.   

In addition to seeing over 1000 Rhinoceros Auklets, we also encountered
about 175 Cassin's Auklets, several Common Murres, and a cooperative pair
of Xantus's Murrelets. We were also treated to hundreds of Bonaparte's
Gulls and both Parasitic and Pomarine Jaegers. A pass by the breakwater on
the way out produced all of the regularly occurring rocky shorebirds. though in

lower than expected numbers..

Trip list (including birds from both the harbor and pelagic waters):
Surf Scoter - 41
Pacific Loon - 10
Common Loon - 1
Eared Grebe - 4
Western Grebe - 15
Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwater - 1
Black-vented Shearwater - 300
Manx Shearwater - 1
Brown Pelican - 800
Brandt's Cormorant - 430
Pelagic Cormorant - 2
Double-crested Cormorant - 100
Great Blue Heron - 4
Snowy Egret - 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron - 3
Black Oystercatcher - 2
Wandering Tattler - 2
Black Turnstone - 8
Surfbird - 2
Bonaparte's Gull - 250
Heermann's Gull - 25
Ring-billed Gull - 2
Western Gull - 800
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull - 5
California Gull - 310
Glaucous-winged Gull - 10
Caspian Tern - 1
Forster's Tern - 15
Royal Tern - 3
Parasitic Jaeger - 1
Pomarine Jaeger - 6
Common Murre - 6
Xantus's Murrelet - 2
Cassin's Auklet - 175
Rhinoceros Auklet - 1100