An Osprey foraged overhead as 28 passengers gathered at San Diego's Fisherman's Landing on a sunny, warm Labor Day afternoon, bound for a 5-day pelagic expedition on the 95-foot live-aboard SEARCHER through the Channel Islands, over deep water canyons and along the continental shelf-edge.
Highlights of the Sept 7-11, 2009 trip include a San Diego Craveri’s Murrelet, an L.A. county Brown Booby, 32 Least Storm-Petrels, 570 Leach’s Storm-Petrels, Sabine's Gulls 3 days in row and a Killer Whale followed by a spectacular whale show near San Miguel island where 25 Humpback and 5 Blue Whales literally encircled the boat!
Also of great delight to our many out-of-state participants were both subspecies of Xantus's Murrelet (the southern breeding hypoleucus and the more northerly scrippsi - certainly separate species just waiting to be split), 5 Northern Fulmar, a surprising (for SoCal) 240 Buller's Shearwater, 557 Pink-footed Shearwater, 657 Sooty Shearwater, 15 South Polar Skua, 6 Long-tailed Jaeger, Red Phalaropes each day and 15 Black-footed Albatross.
Participants had plenty of opportunity to study 3 races of Leach’s Storm-Petrels totaling 570 individuals, including (1) the nominate (O. l. leucorhoa) which breeds in the North Pacific from Alaska to California; (2) the southern breeding (mainly the Coronados and San Benito Islands) “Chapman’s” race (O.l. chapmani); and (3) the summer-breeding Guadalupe Island (Mexico) race, “Townsend’s” (O. l. socorroensis) that some authorities believe should be elevated to full species status.
Monday was a ‘Skua Slam” day – Skua, Pom, Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaeger. We encountered our first jaeger a mile offshore wreaking havoc on a flock of Elegant Terns. Before we reached the Nine Mile Bank we saw 3 Black-vented Shearwaters, a pod of Bottlenose Dolphin, a Sabine’s Gull and a Pomarine Jaeger chasing a Parasitic Jaeger.
The Nine Mile Bank proved very birdy, so birdy, in fact, that we spent the entire afternoon in San Diego waters putzing around looking at myriad seabirds counting 9 Poms, 3 Parasitics, 2 Long-tailed Jaegers, 30 Least Storm-Petrels, 138 of the “Chapman’s” race of Leach’s Storm-Petrels and the highlight of the day, a Craveri’s Murrelet at the north end of the Nine Mile Bank.
As we motored north of the Nine Mile Bank towards the Channel Islands we enjoyed sightings of 3 Blue Whales, the largest creatures to ever inhabit the face of the earth. We also got a good look at a small baleen whale with a sharply falcate dorsal fin - a Sei whale! - a sleek, fast-moving miniature version (and close relative of) the Fin Whale. The sun was low when we spotted a small flock of ten jaegers on the water. We turned SEARCHER to check them out and they flushed – 10 Long-tailed Jaegers, twenty miles offshore, due west of Moonlight Beach in Encinitas.
An absolutely gorgeous Tuesday morning sunrise at sea found us ten miles south of Anacapa Island in 500 fathoms of 64 degree water. Dave Povey had laid a “sunrise slick” that attracted nice looks at a Skua, 3 Poms and 3 species of shearwaters, including our first of 240 trip Buller’s.
After enjoying our breakfasts and Dave’s slick handiwork, we got underway a bit after 7:00 a.m. and just sat back and enjoyed the rich diversity of seabirds – hundreds of shearwaters including another dozen Buller’s, Leach’s Storm-Petrels, Risso’s Dolphins, Northern Fur Seal, Bottlenose and Risso’s Dolphins. We cruised west into deeper water and followed the 1000 fathom line before turning north to run the gap between Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands into colder water of the channel – where we totaled 4 Common Murres and 4 Northern Fulmar and the sinister dorsal fin of a female Killer Whale.
In the late afternoon,5 miles west of San Miguel island, we encountered the largest pod of whales many of us had ever seen consisting of about 25 Humpbacks and 5 Blue Whales. It was a once-in-a-lifetime show, with spouts blowing 360 degrees around us as we just sat and watched for over an hour (be sure to watch the videos!).
Wednesday morning held yet another achingly beautiful sunrise. We were anchored over a deep water canyon between Davis Knoll and Rodriguez Dome, 33 miles southwest of Point Conception, ready to begin our trip out and over the Continental Shelf edge. We proceeded west-southwest over the Rodriguez Dome and into deep water seeing a Blue Whale and 3 Fin Whales along the way.
Seabirds thinned as expected as we got out to and beyond the shelf edge and turned SEARCHER south towards the San Juan Seamount. Buller’s Shearwaters were abundant - we counted 220 of them on this deep water day. It was out here that we saw our only nine of the nominate Leach’s race (O. l. leucorhoa) of the trip. We counted 343 Chapman’s and 11 Townsend’s through out the day. It was another Skua Slam day as well – we racked up 11 Skuas, 5 Poms, 2 Parasitics and 3 Long-taileds. We also saw 22 Guadalupe Fur Seals and delighted all aboard with good looks at a Xantus’s Murrelet of each race after a couple of frustratingly distant sightings. 4 Black-footed Albatrosses followed us off and on throughout the day.
Thursday morning we woke about 15 miles north of the Bell Bank. We were nearly as far south as one can get in the ABA – 110 n. miles wsw of Ensenada, Baja, Mexico – but still in U.S. waters due to a zig-zagging international boundary out into the ocean. During the day, Dave’s never-ending chum slick attracted 9 Black-footed Albatrosses which we enjoyed flying around the boat in varying numbers until dusk. We sailed over the Bell Bank, then turned SEARCHER on a northwest course towards the old Munitions Dumping Grounds to the Mushroom Bank and finally to the Sixty Mile Bank.
This was our last day at sea, and all afternoon we were looking for a rarity that just wouldn’t show up, so we practiced our Zen birding skills all the way until the sun was setting at the Sixty Mile Bank and the seagods rewarded our patience with a nice fly-by Brown Booby. Dave’s sunset slick at the Sixty Mile also produced a few Black Storm-Petrels, 2 Least Storm-Petrels and 2 “Townsends” race of Leach’s at dusk.
The booby proved a fine wrap up to a great four days at sea as we gathered in SEARCHER’S spacious salon for yet one more delicious dinner – with Cookie’s & Cream ice cream for desert. Friday morning at 6:30 a.m. found us all on deck watching the sun rise over the San Diego skyline as SEARCHER motored into the harbor.
Special thanks to our leaders: Todd McGrath, who threaded us through the canyons, seamounts and ridges of the California bight while finding and identifying birds at astounding distances; Ned Brinkley, author of the "National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America," and editor of North American Birds, the American Birding Association's quarterly journal of ornithological record, and Dave Povey for attracting seabirds to SEARCHER with his concoctions of popcorn, fish-oil, fish-guts and beef-fat.
Thank-you to Art Taylor and Celia Condit, SEARCHER'S owners, who took a chance on “those crazy seabird lovers” in 2003 and block time every year from their natural history tours for a birding expedition enabling us to wander and ramble the California bight in search of seabirds.
It was a great week at sea. There is nothing else quite like being out there - no TV, no cell phone, no computers, not traffic. The September weather was fantastic, as it almost always is this time of year. New friends were made, life birds logged, and fun was had by all. We hope you will join us on the next SEARCHER pelagic expedition.
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