copyright 2003 Shearwater Journeys

Hello, Seabirders,

This past weekend Shearwater Journeys ran three very successful trips from Monterey. Each trip covered different parts of the bay and each trip had some special highlights. Some of these were: a rare THICK-BILLED MURRE in Santa Cruz County, seen well by all on board the boat trip and photographed by me; XANTUS' MURRELETS, two birds seen well by all participants; 29 SOUTH POLAR SKUAS (!) on the Albacore trip; BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSSES on every trip (often they leave Monterey Bay at this time of year); two FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATERS were found on one trip; a PARTIAL ALBINO BULLER'S SHEARWATER seen by all participants and photographed by me (I believe that this is a different individual from the one that I reported on the Sep. 15th Monterey trip): a MELANISTIC PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER, very rare in our area, also photographed by me; all three species of jaegers, POMARINE, PARASITIC, and LONG-TAILED were found on the albacore trip (it is late for Long-tailed); SABINE'S GULLS on two of the trips, also late for them as they are well past their migration peak; TUFTED PUFFINS, three different birds on the Oct. 3 trip, and one on the Oct. 4th trip. FIN, BLUE, and HUMPBACK WHALES were found on the Albacore trip, and a variety of dolphins were seen on all of the trips.

Weather was great on all of the trips, with only a small windchop from the northwest. There was no measurable swell. We covered many of the areas where the storm-petrel rafts have been found this year, and in past years. No rafts could be found. We put in a substantial effort to find the flocks. It appears that the decline of the Ashy Storm-Petrels continues. We found rafts of thousands of storm-petrels on the Sep 15th Monterey Bay trip (still the best overall trip of the season!)

Our next trips with spaces available are: Oct 11 from Monterey, Oct 12 from Santa Cruz, Oct 15 from Fort Bragg, Oct 17 from Monterey, Nov 29 from Monterey, and the entirely pelagic Christmas Bird Count from Monterey on Dec. 15th. We also have a trip from Monterey on Jan. 24, 2004. The Oct 13th trip from Bodega Bay is sold out, sorry. For more details, see the schedule, or call Debi Shearwater at 831-637-8527 . If you are interested in the Oct 15 or 17 trips, just show up at the dock, ready to go.

The full species report is below, given by dates: Oct 3/4/5: (Oct. 3 Monterey Bay Classic Fall Seabirds, Oct. 4 Albacore Grounds: Offshore Monterey, Oct. 5 Monterey Seavalley & Sur Canyon)

COMMON LOON-2/0/0
PACIFIC LOON-2/0/1
EARED GREBE-7/0/2
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS-7/19/14
SOOTY SHEARWATER-80/65/190
SOOTY/SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER-2/3/0
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER-210/830/557
BULLER'S SHEARWATER-52/174/35
FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER-0/0/2
NORTHERN FULMAR-85/15/15
ASHY STORM-PETREL-20/15/15
BLACK STORM-PETREL-1/1/0
POMARINE JAEGER-5/17/7
POMARINE/PARASITIC JAEGER-2/2/2
PARASITIC JAEGER-1/7/2
PARASITIC/LONG-TAILED JAEGER-0/1/0
LONG-TAILED JAEGER-1/6/0
SOUTH POLAR SKUA-1/29/9
HERRING GULL-1/0/1
GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL-2/0/0
WESTERN GULL-250/120/1000+
CALIFORNIA GULL-100/210/1000+
HEERMANN'S GULL-50/25/250+
SABINE'S GULL-2/10/0
ARCTIC TERN-2/0/0
ARCTIC/COMMON TERN-0/60/2
COMMON TERN-1/0/0
ELEGANT TERN-5/0/6
COMMON MURRE-40/5/9
THICK-BILLED MURRE-0/1/0
PIGEON GUILLEMOT-1/0/1
RHINOCEROS AUKLET-220/42/415
CASSIN'S AUKLET-260/22/97
XANTUS' MURRELET-0/0/2
XANTUS/CRAVERI'S-5/0/0
TUFTED PUFFIN-3/1/0
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE-35/2/1
RED PHALAROPE-5/1/6
BLACK TURNSTONE-4/0/4
PEREGRINE FALCON-0/1/1
BLUE WHALE-3/9/7
FIN WHALE-2/0/0
HUMPBACK WHALE-0/21/6
ORCA-4/0/0
DALL'S PORPOISE-12/8/6
PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN-380/400/500
NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE DOLPHIN-180/20/700
RISSO'S DOLPHIN-240/0/12
NORTHERN FUR SEAL-0/1/1
NORTHERN ELEPHANT SEAL-2/0/0
HARBOR SEAL+/+/+
CALIFORNIA SEA LION +/+/+
SEA OTTER-+/+/+
BLUE SHARK-3/2/2
OCEAN SUNFISH-1/2/2

Bird the high seas!
Debi Shearwater

Click on the Murrelet to find out how to reserve a trip.