SoCalBirding.com

SAN DIEGO BIRD FESTIVAL 8 HOUR BOAT TRIPS - SPONSORED BY SWAROVSKI OPTIKS

These 3.5 hour pelagic trips will take us to the alcid, jaeger & tubenose-rich Nine Mile Bank where we spend 6 hours in San Diego waters.  We'll be aboard the comfortable 85-foot live-aboard Grande observing hundreds of seabirds and marine mammals and view migrating California Gray Whales as they make their way to the warm lagoons of Baja California  to breed and give birth. This majestic, once-endangered species is now making a comeback.

THESE TRIPS ARE SETTING SOCAL RECORDS:  Participant's on these trips see rare happenings of birds at sea.  the 2009 Bird Festival saw something that has never happened in SoCal before or since:  we found two Manx Shearwaters (very rare in California) just off shore.  To top it off, we had a Blue-footed Booby circling the boat!   In 2010, just south of the Mexican Border, a Laysan's Albatross flew by and we saw Black-footed Albatrosses on two of the three trips.   

We often see three or four species of dolphins (Bottlenose, Common, Pacific White-sided and Risso's) and numerous seabirds including fulmars, shearwaters, auklets, murrelets, and jaegers.  This is also a good time of year to find three species of loons, three species of cormorants, five to six species of gulls.

On our way out of the harbor we'll motor slowly by the San Diego live bait tanks for close-ups of several dozen lounging sea lions, several hundred Brandt's cormorants, several species of gulls, and dozens of egrets and herons.  Then we'll check Ballast Point where Black Oystercatchers and a Long-tailed Duck hung out the entire winter of 2009-2010 and were seen from Grande on this trip at the 2010 Bird Festival.   

On these trips we often see migrating Gray Whales, Fin Whales and Humpback Whales plus multiple pods of dolphins, as well as snoozing Harbor Seals and California Sea Lions.  

Upon our return to San Diego harbor the captain will put Grande right up next to the Zuniga Jetty to look for rocky shore birds such as Black and American Oystercatchers, Wandering Tattler, Black Turnstone and Surfbird. 

AGE:  This trip is appropriate for children 10 years and older.   

LEADERS for this trip consist of west coast pelagic birding & mammal experts including.  See who they are.   Our principal pelagic trip sponsor, Swarovski Optiks will feature Clay Taylor and/or his team who will provide an enormous case of every species of Swarovski Binocular known to man so that you have a great opportunity to field-test them in real-life birding conditions. 

RESERVATIONS AND TRIP DETAILS are available only by registering for the San Diego Bird Festival.  This trip will depart from bird festival headquarters.  Grande will be docked at Mission Bay for the Bird Festival, not at her regular home at Point Loma Sportfishing. All participants will depart from the Bird Festival Headquarters. 

HOW TO PREPARE:  Click for tips on how to prepare, what to wear, what to bring and when to arrive.

RESERVATIONS for this trip are handled only by the San Diego Bird Festival. 

CANCELLATION POLICY:  Trips on this website are sponsored by different organizations using different boats departing from different landings and harbors.  As such, policies vary from trip to trip.  Prior to registering, please familiarize yourself with your trip's policies regarding reservations, cancellations, refunds and substitutions as well as reviewing driving directions, check-in times, procedures and equipment allowed on the boats.