Day 1

We arrived at the Red Roof Inn, Watsonville with plenty of time for our 5pm welcome meeting. We shuttled into Watsonville for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Dinner was jovial and lasted late, and since several of the participants had traveled from the eastern US and Canada we retired early.

Day 2

We spent virtually the entire day at Moss Landing, primarily at the Moss Landing Marine Lab (MLML). Debi's video on seabirds was shown during breakfast. At 8:30 am we drove the 20 minutes to MLML where we birded a bit outside the lab before meeting MLML marine biologists Hannah Nevins and Josh Adams. Hannah gave us a complete tour of the facility after which Josh presented his excellent work with migration and conservation of Sooty Shearwaters. Pizza for lunch was on the back deck of MLML overlooking the inlet and ocean. Weather was clear, warm, and spectacular.
After lunch Peter spent an hour and a half teaching seabird identification and plumages with specimens, and Hannah gave a presentation on her work with Common Murres. At 1530 we departed MLML to bird the mouth of the inlet. We saw several western specialty species of interest, including White-tailed Kite, Violet-green Swallow, Pigeon Guillemot, Clark's Grebe, and Elegant Tern. We also delighted in the 1000's of gulls, other seabirds, otters, and pinnipeds at Moss Landing, which gave us a great backdrop for discussing the marine productivity and health of Monterey Bay. After an excellent dinner at Phil's in Moss Landing we enjoyed a comprehensive presentation at MLML by Jim Harvey on the oceanography, ecology, and food webs in Monterey Bay.

Day 3

Following breakfast we drove to Monterey Bay and boarded our boat skippered by Tinker for the day. Our lecturer Mark Rauzon joined us for the trip. Weather was generally excellent for the pelagic trip, with winds of 5-12 knots and very little swell, although the east winds we have been having tends to push birds farther offshore. These switched to northwest at 11 am, which helped bring in many seabirds. Swell was low all day with just a bit of chop.
There was a dramatic "red tide" that had invaded Monterey Bay. This dinoflagellate bloom creates murky brownish to blood-red water, which seabirds avoid because they cannot see prey while foraging under water or from above. The red tide extended out 6-8 miles from shore, and it was not until we got to the outer edge of it and into bluer water that we began to get pelagic seabirds. We spent the morning transversing the bay to the north, passing over Monterey Canyon and up to Davenport Canyon north of the bay. This proved a good itinerary as we had our most exciting observations including the highlight of 7 Baird's Beaked Whales above Davenport Canyon.
Just after we saw the beaked whales Tinker received a report of a vessel in distress off Davenport so we proceeded in that direction to assist as possible. This gave us the opportunity to demonstrate the altruistic nature of the Monterey Bay fishing and boating community when it comes to boats in distress. Tinker and the Coast Guard established a search pattern but after an hour of finding nothing we continued with our trip. This incident was later thought to have been someone with a marine radio playing a prank from Hwy One.
Without exception all participants were very pleased with the boat trip, getting many lifebirds, including some long-sought species for the birders with over 700 on their ABA lists. Views of almost all species were excellent, with a South Polar Skua circling the boat for 5-10 minutes being the highlight for many. After a dinner on the Monterey wharf we returned to the motel to hear Mark's presentation on the conservation of tropical Pacific atolls.

Boat Trip Totals:

Pacific Loon 8
Common Loon 6
Eared Grebe 8
Western Grebe 5
Black-footed Albatross 12
Northern Fulmar 320
Pink-footed Shearwater 60
Flesh-footed Shearwater 2
Buller's Shearwater 12
Sooty Shearwater 25
Short-tailed Shearwater 5
Brown Pelican 30
Brandt's Cormorant 400
Pelagic Cormorant 5
Harlequin Duck - 1 (stakeout)
Surf Scoter 50
Black Turnstone 4
Red Phalarope 5
South Polar Skua 1, Pomarine Jaeger 30
Parasitic Jaeger 1
Bonaparte's Gull 4
Heermann's Gull 200
Mew Gull 1
California Gull 150
Herring Gull 1
Western Gull 250
Glaucous-winged Gull 10
Elegant Tern 8
Forster's Tern 1
Common Murre 50
Pigeon Guillemot 1
Cassin's Auklet 6
Rhinoceros Auklet 50
Northern Sea Otter 6
California Sea Lion 300
Northern Fur Seal 1
Harbor Seal 1
Humpback Whale 13
Baird's Beaked Whale 8
Risso's Dolphin 20
Pacific White-sided Dolphin 8
Dall's Porpoise 3
Blue Shark 1

Day 4

Because of the red tide there were almost no birds off Point Pinos when we went by on the boat the day before. The forecast was for 20-30 knot winds and when we awoke before dawn it was pea-soup fog as well. Due to these conditions we made a decision to take the group inland into better weather to do some birding along Hwy 25 in San Benito County. We were able to show the group many species on their "want lists," including Greater Roadrunner, Lawrence's Goldfinch, Nuttall's Woodpecker, Wrentit, Yellow-billed Magpie, Oak Titmouse, Rock Wren, and Prairie Falcon. We also saw both Bald and Golden Eagles and many interesting shorebirds and ducks at a reservoir near Paicines. Later that evening, Peter gave a one-hour lecture on trans-Pacific migrations, highlighting albatross and white sharks.

Day 5

As of Wednesday the forecast was for 20-30 knots for both Thursday and today, but when we checked the buoy at 0600 it had diminished to only 8 knots. The fog had cleared and, after a bit of a "lump" from the winds of Thursday had died down, the weather turned out to be calm and beautiful for a day on the ocean. A Black-legged Kittiwake and Sabine's Gull within the first 30 minutes were great omens (Debi has only seen these two on the same day once before) and we wound up having a spectacular day of seabirding. We retraced some of our steps from Wednesday and had completely different species and numbers, highlighting how the ocean can vary from day to day. The red tide had cleared a bit from Wednesday. After another great dinner we returned to the motel for a final wrap-up and run through of the workshop bird list.

Boat Trip Totals:

Pacific Loon 150
Common Loon 20
Eared Grebe 1
Western Grebe 6
Black-footed Albatross 7
Northern Fulmar 1000+
Pink-footed Shearwater 150
Flesh-footed Shearwater 5
Buller's Shearwater 100
Sooty Shearwater 50
Short-tailed Shearwater 1
Wilson's Storm-Petrel 2
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 1
Ashy Storm-Petrel 18
Brown Pelican 120
Brandt's Cormorant 400
Pelagic Cormorant 2
Surf Scoter 150
Red-breasted Merganser 4
Black Turnstone 1
Red Phalarope 25
South Polar Skua 3
Pomarine Jaeger 8
Parasitic Jaeger 1
Bonaparte's Gull 100
Heermann's Gull 250
Mew Gull 3
California Gull 200
Herring Gull 5
Western Gull 250
Glaucous-winged Gull 15
Sabine's Gull 1
Black-legged Kittiwake 7
Elegant Tern 18
Common Murre 20
Pigeon Guillemot 1
Cassin's Auklet 10
Rhinoceros Auklet 80
Northern Sea Otter 2
California Sea Lion 300
Northern Fur Seal 2
Northern Elephant Seal 1
Humpback Whale 2
Northern Right Whale Dolphin 40
Pacific White-sided Dolphin 20
Dall's Porpoise 5
Ocean Sunfish 6

A good time and valuable learning experience was had by all during the 2007 ABA/IFO Seabird Workshop.