Download Trip Log with interactive map, trip route, and GPS coordinates of all birds seen. Log is in Google Earth format, you must have Google Earth running on your computer. Google Earth is a free download.
28 passengers from 3 countries and 15 cities departed 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 1-5, 2008 trip included Red-billed Tropicbird, Cook's Petrel and Wilson's Storm-Petrel.
All participants had close views of more than 200 Leach's Storm-Petrels, including dark-rumped Leach's (O.I. chapmani) and Guadalupe Island summer-breeding Leach's (O. I. socorroensis) that some authorities believe should be elevated to full species status.
Also of interest were close-ups of both subspecies of Xantus's Murrelet, 2 Northern Fulmar, a first-year Ring-billed Gull 110 miles offshore at the Cortez Bank (!), a surprising (for SoCal) 169 Buller's Shearwater, 1147 Pink-footed Shearwater, 578 Black Storm-Petrel, 25 Sabine's Gull, 5 Skua, 13 LT Jaeger, 20 Poms, 18 Ashy Storm-Petrels, 4 Black-footed Albatross, 6 Blue Whale, 14 Fin Whale and a Sperm Whale.
Vagrants, lost, and out of place species over deep water included Greater Yellowlegs, Savannah Sparrow, Black Turnstone McGillivray's Warbler, Spotted Sandpiper, Mourning Dove and the inevitable (3) Brown-headed Cowbirds.
Monday afternoon we birded the north edge of the Coronado Canyon, then headed north up the Nine-mile Bank towards the Channel Islands. Black-vented, Pink-footed and Sooty Shearwater were plentiful, as were Black Storm-Petrels (197).
Tuesday morning at dawn found us just south of Anacapa Island where we counted 700 Pink-footed Shearwater over the course of the morning. This was a "Skua-Slam" day with 4 South Polar Skua, 14 Poms, 2 Parasitic and 3 Long-tailed Jaeger.
Excellent weather allowed us to wake up Wednesday morning further north than Searcher has ever ventured - over Arguello Canyon where many on deck got fleeting glimpses of a Cook's Petrel. After breakfast we cruised over the Rodriguez and San Juan Seamounts were several participants got a glimpse of a fast-departing Red-billed Tropicbird. The deep water was right for Leach's Storm-Petrels (140) and Long-tailed Jaegers (8) with a sprinkling of the other jaegers/skua for our second "Skua-slam". After dinner, the second Red-billed Tropicbird of the day flew just 20 feet overhead to Searcher's lights.
Thursday we awoke at a flat-calm Cortez Bank, 110 miles west of San Diego. The sweet spot of the day came at the Sixty-mile Bank where Wes Fritz laid an enormous slick attracting hundreds of storm-petrels, including 2 Least and a Wilson's.
Bob Flood of Isles of Scilly, England, who is producing several videos for publication with an emphasis on identifying seabird flight-styles, obtained excellent videos of the storm-petrel flocks we encountered at the 60-mile Bank.
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; Paul Guris (See Life Paulagics), a grizzled 25-year Atlantic Ocean pelagic veteran leader and beer coinsure who shared his wealth of flight gizz knowledge with 28 guests all week; Jon Feenstra, our entertaining and expert emcee, who provided detailed commentary of the significance what was being seen via the Searcher's public address system; and Santa Barbara's Wes Fritz for keeping birds off the stern with popcorn, fish-oil and beef-fat and chumming up tubenoses.
Thank-you to Art Taylor and Celia Condit, Searcher's owners, who continue to block out two weeks every year from their busy natural history tours exclusively for birders, enabling us to wander and ramble the California bight in search of rarities.
An additional thank you to Jon Feenstra who compiled and submitted our 3800+ sightings to eBird, broken down by regions. Jon's reports are included below.
Thanks, too, to Matthew Sadowski who brought his GPS and kept a very granular trip log. When transcribed, Matt's log will contain coordinates of all birds seen on the trip. Matt will post his compilation to CalBirds in the form of a Google Earth file after he spreads the nearly 4000 records to their respective coordinates.
It was a great week at sea. There is nothing else quite like being out there. You never know what you?ll see, you?re seeing seabirds as soon as you leave the harbor, you're surrounded by experts who are happy help you improve your knowledge and skills, and no matter what the weather, you feel one with nature. This past week, new friends were made, life birds logged, and fun was had by all. We hope you will join us on one of our upcoming pelagic trips.
Lloyd Snyder of Jonesboro (694 ABA birds) saw 7 life birds on Searcher and pronounced, "This is the most fantastic pelagic trip I?ve ever been on, worth every penny I paid and more than I hoped for ? and you can print that!"
THE NEXT SEARCHER TRIPS ARE SCHEDULED FOR:
April 29 - May 3, 2009
Sept 7 - 11, 2009
http://www.bajawhale.com/birdingtrips.asp
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