copyright 2004 Shearwater Journeys

Wow, Seabirders!

What a day the Shearwater Journeys folks had today on Monterey Bay! Just amazing. We began with uniformly, high overcast skies, and flat, calm seas, and ended the day with sunshine, and absolutely glassy seas! That, alone was nice. Lucky for us, the overcast lasted for most of the day, as this allowed us to look in all directions, plus it's easier on the eyeballs.

Along Cannery Row, we saw the usual fall suspects: BLACK TURNSTONES on the jetty, ELEGANT TERNS, BRANDT'S and PELAGIC CORMORANTS, EARED GREBES, PIGEON GUILLEMOTS, and PARASITIC JAEGER. This morning, the PEREGRINE FALCON was sitting on its usual roost, the radio tower on the Row.

Immediately, shearwaters began appearing off Point Pinos: SOOTY, PINK-FOOTED, and BULLER'S, boom, boom, boom. I sensed that something had really changed in Monterey. It seems that the red tide has moved out! So, things were looking pretty good. We headed up to the place where our skipper, David Lemon, had found the storm-petrel flocks in previous weeks. Since the seas were so calm, we could see for miles. I spotted a gigantic, dark mass of storm-petrels off at our 3 o'clock. As soon as we finished looking over the CASSIN'S AUKLET that we were watching, we headed for this mass of seabirds. It was absolutely astounding. It was a sight like I used to see in the good ol' days of the late 1970's and early 1980's!

Soon, it became apparent that we were really in for a bigger treat than we had imagined: thousands upon thousands of storm-petrels! We estimated 12,000 before the rafts broke up. There were so many LEAST STORM-PETRELS that the leaders were able to easily point them out to every participant. I was even able to point out LEASTS sitting on the water before they took flight. Masses of BLACK STORM-PETRELS were everywhere. Then, I saw a Black Storm-Petrel chasing a much smaller storm-petrel that was reddish or rusty in coloration!! I've seen lots of partial albino shearwaters and storm-petrels over the years, but I have never seen anything that was RUFOUS in coloration! It was stunning! Some of the other participants on our trip got on this bird. We refound it about 4 times, and three of those times the rufous was being chased by a black. Once, the rufous morph Least was being chased by an Ashy Storm-petrel. It was wild! I'd love to know if anyone has ever heard of such coloration in storm-petrels. I shot a couple of frames on my camera, but I doubt that the little thing will be much more than a dot. It had translucent rufous wings, and I thought that it was rufous all over, although another observer thought that it had a dark belly. Several WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS flew around the area. In all, our tally was: ASHY-8000, BLACK- 3250, LEAST-750, WILSON'S-3 to 5. Some RISSO'S DOLPHINS, PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS, and NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE DOLPHINS cut through the flocks, escorting two HUMPBACK WHALES! It was a busy time for us.

Finally, we departed the storm-petrel scene and headed north toward Davenport. We spotted a long line fishing vessel, pulling its line, and discarding chili peppers (cod), overboard. Many PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERS were sitting around. This was the same area where we had found a fishing vessel on the September 25th trip (report not yet complete). I spotted the same MELANISTIC PINK-FOOT in the flock that we had seen on Sep. 25th! Then, the call came for FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER! Several flesh-foots flew around our boat, while one sat on the water for a great photo-op! At least 11 BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSSES were in the wake of the fishing vessel.

Turning toward our home harbor, I said to our skipper, David, that I would be impressed if he managed to spot the same TUFTED PUFFINS that we had found on September 24 & 25! Ten minutes later, David stopped the boat on a TUFTED PUFFIN! Both puffins were in Santa Cruz County. We passed more HUMPBACK WHALES and groups of DALL'S PORPOISES, and two NORTHERN ELEPHANT SEALS while we basked in the afternoon sunshine, worn out from a spendid day of seabirding!

The complete species list for Friday, October 1, 2004 follows:

PACIFIC LOON-3
COMMON LOON-1
EARED GREBE-2
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS-15
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER-405 (1 MELANISTIC)
FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER-3-4
BULLER'S SHEARWATER-48
SOOTY SHEARWATER-600
WILSON'S STORM-PETREL-3-5
ASHY STORM-PETREL-8000
BLACK STORM-PETREL-3250
LEAST STORM-PETREL-750 (1 RUFOUS MORPH)
BROWN PELICAN-+
BRANDT'S CORMORANT-400+
PELAGIC CORMORANT-1
BLACK TURNSTONE-3
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE-45
RED PHALAROPE-40
POMARINE JAEGER-7
POMARINE/PARASITIC JAEGER-1
PARASITIC JAEGER-2
SABINE'S GULL-7
ELEGANT TERN-50
COMMON MURRE-150
PIGEON GUILLEMOT-2
CASSIN'S AUKLET-7-10
RHINOCEROS AUKLET-405
TUFTED PUFFIN-2
SEA OTTER-4
CALIFORNIA SEA LION-+
NORTHERN ELEPHANT SEAL-2
HUMPBACK WHALE-18
NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE DOLPHIN-112
RISSO'S DOLPHIN-80
PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN-350
DALL'S PORPOISE-28
OCEAN SUNFISH-2
BLUE SHARK-1
PEREGRINE FALCON-1

SOME THOUGHTS: To answer a few questions, as I have not completed the trip reports for the September 24, 25, 26, and 28 trips: No, I still have not seen the Arctic Tern migration, nor any large numbers of Sabine's Gulls. I suspect they must have migrated further offshore this year. I cannot remember a year when I have seen so few Arctic Terns, in particular. The red tide is rapidly moving out of Monterey Bay. I did see some evidence of the red tide in the nearshore waters off of Bodega Bay on September 26th. So, its not surprising that there is less of it in Monterey today. The bulk of the Cassin's Auklets are north of Monterey, around the Cordell Bank, and especially north of Fort Bragg, where we saw nearly 2000 of them on September 28th. No surprise here, as the krill must be up north too, based on the presence and number of Blue Whales that we saw there. The pieces of the puzzle are really fitting together nicely. Its great to be able to witness what is happening at a variety of places along the coast. Many thanks to the folks who join us on these trips, providing this rare opportunity of the spectacle of seabird migration!

Shearwaters forever,
Debi

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