copyright 2004 Shearwater Journeys

Howdy, Seabirders,

Well, it was a wild four days at sea along the central California coast on Shearwater Journey's September 10, 11, 12, and 13th trips. After days of flat seas, the winds began to blow from the northwest on the 7th of September. This had some dramatic effects on the sea surface temperature and the distribution of seabirds, in particular, the storm-petrels.

On the September 10th trip from Bodega Bay, we discovered that most of the storm-petrels had dispersed. The sea surface temperature had gone from 61 to 55 in a matter of days due to the winds. Although we had good views of some scattered storm-petrels, we did not find any large flocks. There was a lot of krill around, and hence BLUE WHALES and CASSIN'S AUKLETS. We had a clean sweep on the jaegers and a dozen SOUTH POLAR SKUAS.

The September 11th trip from Monterey had a surprising male BLACK SCOTER fly by along Cannery Row. In the morning, a single BLACK-VENTED SHEARWATER cruised past the boat, as did two SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATERS. We made a valiant effort to locate the storm-petrel flocks, but they were not to in the areas where we had originally found them. We were stuck in 61-62 degree water with no life in it! Our very experienced skipper, David Lemon, suggested that we try the canyons off of Davenport on the north coast of Santa Cruz. So, we did this, and were successful in finding petrels! The sea surface temperature had dropped to 57! We had found a bubble of cold water and a good edge, as well. In this bubble, we found, 4000 ASHY STORM-PETRELS, 150 BLACK STORM-PETRELS, 25 LEAST STORM-PETRELS, and 1 WILSON'S STORM-PETREL in some pretty bouncy sea conditions, all in Santa Cruz County. This area was teemingconducive with life; thousands of shearwaters and lots of dolphins and humpbacks. A surprise find on the return to the harbor was an adult TUFTED PUFFIN, also in Santa Cruz County.

September 12th, we headed out from Monterey very early on our albacore trip at 5:30 am. It seems that there is not going to be an albacore season in Monterey this year, as these tuna did not come within 50 miles of the coast. So, we headed out to the storm-petrel stomping grounds, once again. We found the storm-petrels, once again in bouncy seas. But, this time there were far fewer petrels present. The northwest winds, which continued to blow, must have been scattering them other places. In Santa Cruz County, we did have great views of a FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER. Another FLESH-FOOT showed up in Monterey County.

On September 13th the winds abated slightly, although there was still some swell. We headed to Davenport, but the large numbers of storm-petrels had really disappeared. The sea surface temperature had really dropped. It was now 56-57 just off Point Pinos, whereas it had been 61-62 the past few days. It was apparent that the large flocks of shearwaters and herds of dolphins that had been up off of Davenport, were now just a few miles off Point Pinos. So, much of the wildlife had moved many miles!

Some observations that I note so far: Black-footed Albatross numbers really dropped this week. The Cassin's Auklets and Blue Whales are just about absent from Monterey Bay, but are feeding at Cordell Bank and Bodega Canyon. None of these trips had sea conditions that were conducive to finding Xantus's or Craveri's Murrelets. So, I cannot comment on their absence or presence. I don't know where the bulk of the Sabine's Gulls or Arctic Terns are. Usually by now, we have had a day with a very high count of both species. Maybe it is yet to come. Or, maybe they migrated further offshore this year. In any case, our numbers are pretty low on any one trip of these species. Ditto on the jaeger counts. I'm used to seeing much higher numbers of jaegers. It was gratifying to see numbers of storm-petrels. Since is seems that the northwest winds blew them somewhere, I'm guessing that they might be closer in Monterey Bay, maybe near their old stomping grounds. It seems unlikely that they flew uphill in the wind. This weekend's trips from Bodega Bay and Fort Bragg will provide some much needed pieces to the puzzle of seabird movements along the central coast. More to come....

The leaders on these trips were: Sep 10: Jennifer Green, Mike Danzenbaker, Lisa Hug, David VanderPluym, Debi Shearwater, and Don Doolittle. Sep 11: Denise Wight, Scott Terrill, Linda Terrill, David VanderPluym, Don Doolittle, and Debi Shearwater. Sep. 12: Steve Rottenborn, Mike Danzenbaker, Jennifer Green, Matt Brady, David VanderPluym, Don Doolittle, and Debi Shearwater. Sep. 13: Sophie Webb, Debi Shearwater, Steve Howell, Matt Brady, David VanderPluym, and Don Doolittle. The species list follows for all four trips. You will notice that those folks who went on all four trips racked up quite a list! This is the way to do it, if you are coming from out of state.

PACIFIC LOON-2/0/1/1
COMMON LOON-1/0/0/0
EARED GREBE-1/0/0/0
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS-4/3/2/2
NORTHERN FULMAR-6/2/4/2
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER-124/790/550/450
FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER-0/0/2/1
BULLER'S SHEARWATER-224/357/365/200+
SOOTY SHEARWATER-67/1950/1950/8000
SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER-0/2/0/0
BLACK-VENTED SHEARWATER-0/1/0/0
WILSON'S STORM-PETREL-0/1/1/0
FORK-TAILED STORM-PETREL-1/0/0/0
ASHY STORM-PETREL-47/4000/530/12
BLACK STORM-PETREL-0/150/53/2
LEAST STORM-PETREL-0/25/12/0
BROWN PELICAN-+/+/+/+
BRANDT'S CORMORANT-+/+/+/+
PELAGIC CORMORANT-4/1/1/3
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE-5/14/23/50
RED PHALAROPE-55/12/12/10
SOUTH POLAR SKUA-5/4/5/1
POMARINE JAEGER-10/11/25/21
PARASITIC JAEGER-4/8/3/5
LONG-TAILED JAEGER-8/2/3/0
POM/PARA-1/2/0/1
PARA/LONG-TAIL-1/1/0/1
HEERMANN'S GULL-10/50/5/80
CALIFORNIA GULL-60/120/+/150
WESTERN GULL-90/400/+/300
SABINE'S GULL-31/23/32/0
ELEGANT TERN-6/40/4/50
COMMON TERN-2/1/0/1
ARCTIC TERN-3/1/1/0
COMMON MURRE-177/75/74/130
PIGEON GUILLEMOT-8/4/2/7
CASSIN'S AUKLET-69/1/0/0
RHINOCEROS AUKLET-27/97/77/127
TUFTED PUFFIN-0/1/0/0


SEA OTTER-0/3/+/8
CALIFORNIA SEA LION-+/+/+/+
NORTHERN FUR SEAL-0/1/0/0
NORTHERN ELEPHANT SEAL-1/0/0/0
HARBOR SEAL-4/0/0/2
BLUE WHALE-6/0/0/0
HUMPBACK WHALE-9/3/19/14
BAIRD'S BEAKED WHALE-0/8/0/0
NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE DOLPHIN-6/1200+/6/130
RISSO'S DOLPHIN-8/70/16/500
PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN-0/200/134/180
DALL'S PORPOISE-4/0/5/8
OCEAN SUNFISH-6/3/0/1
BLUE SHARK-0/1/0/0


GOOD SEABIRIDNG!
DEBI

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