copyright 2003 Shearwater Journeys

Hello, Seabirders,

Shearwater Journeys just completed another three day set of trips, all from Monterey, all very different from each other. Over 30 species of seabirds were recorded. I give the highlights of each trip below.

We still have spaces open on the Saturday, October 12th trip from Monterey, and the Sunday, October 13th trip from Santa Cruz. The Monday, October 14th trip from Bodega Bay is sold out. For a reservation, call 831/637-8527.

Friday, October 4th

The Friday, October 4th trip departed from Fishermans' Wharf in Monterey at 7 am. and returned at 3 pm. This is our "classic" trip from Monterey. The hightlights of the trip included:
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS (1);
2,000+ ASHY STORM-PETRELS and 50 BLACK STORM-PETRELS;
POMARINE (8), PARASITIC (1), and LONG-TAILED JAEGERS (1);
SOUTH POLAR SKUA (3);
and a TUFTED PUFFIN (1).

The usual rocky shorebirds were along the Coast Guard breakwater, along with a RING-BILLED GULL (1juv., unusual) along Cannery Row. As is normal at this time of year, Black-footed Albatross numbers are declining, NORTHERN FULMAR and BLACK-VENTED SHEARWATER numbers are increasing. SOOTY SHEARWATERS have all but departed, with only a hand-full found on all three trips this past weekend. BULLER'S SHEARWATERS continue. Surprisingly, most of the shearwaters were concentrated on the 50 fathom line, just off Point Pinos, very close to shore. The area near the storm-petrel flocks was the most productive area;this is where the fish (BLUE FIN TUNA), birds, and whales were found. This is the 4th or 5th time in the past several years that I have found ASHY STORM-PETRELS in association with BLUE FIN TUNA. The area is about 17-19 miles off Point Pinos. Here the shelf slopes rapidly from 500 fathoms to 1000 fathoms. The storm-petrel flock was concentrated just off the edge of the 500 fathom line. While searching through the storm-petrels, I picked up the leucistic ashy that I had seen previously on September 1, 2002. Just then, small bushy blows were spotted off at 3 o'clock. Two BAIRD'S BEAKED WHALES surfaced, although we were unsure of their exact identity at the time because of the strange angle that they had in relationship to our boat, and because of the brief views. While we pulled out the cetacean books and poured over what they could have been, Jennifer Green respotted the same whales. This time, they made a direct and purposeful approach to our vessel, changing their direction, and heading straight on for our bow! Such views of the beaks!! It was very exciting, and most of us just did not have enough time to grab for the cameras.

Saturday, October 5th

5:30 pm. This was our second "albacore grounds" trip of the year. The target birds of the albacore trip are Xantus' and Craveris' Murrelets, Long-tailed Jaeger, South Polar Skua, and rarities such as tropicbirds. Of course, we hope to see albacore, the "Cadillac" of the tunas. However, this year the albacore have been just about nowhere within reaching distance of our trips, even though we routinely go 40-50 miles offshore on this trip. The idea is to reach warm water, 59-60F, and especially, a "hard" edge to the warm water. This was just not going to happen on this day. The nearest warm water was 70 miles away. In additon, we had some high seas and swells. So, at 35 miles offshore, with only 1 individual sooty shearwater for the day recorded, I decided to turn the boat around and head for the area where the storm-petrels were the day prior. The ocean was completely dead offshore, no food on the fish finder and it just made sense to turn around. No one complained. It is important to remember that food is not evenly distributed on the ocean, it is usually in patches. So, we headed back to the "patch." The inshore seas were much calmer. En route, we slammed on the breaks for a beautiful juvenile LAYSAN ALBATROSS which flew into our wake. It ate about 7 squid, practically out of our hands! The juvenile lacks the gray cheek patch. It was a most beautiful bird, and gave us a lot of photo ops. We found the storm-petrel flock in the same area, and about the same composition. The only new addition was a FORK-TAILED STORM-PETREL found by Steve Howell. We had a grand slam on the jaegers and knock out views of South Polar Skua overhead. A TUFTED PUFFIN flew through our wake. We did not find the target murrelet species. This was our first fall trip with no large whales, although we did find PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS and NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE DOLPHINS, and 2 NORTHERN FUR SEALS.

Sunday, October 6th

The morning of Sunday, October 6 brimmed with sunlight and calm seas. The Monterey Seavalley and Sur Canyon is what I call our "combo pizza" trip, we head south from Point Pinos and then, turn north to the North Rim of the Monterey Submarine Canyon. This trip leaves at 7am and returns at 4:30 pm, an hour and a half longer than the "classic" trip. It gives us more time to adequately search both areas of the bay that are normally productive. I had already made up my mind that we were going to spend our day between the "shearwater zone" just off Point Pinos, and the storm-petrel "patch" that we had found the past two days. I was certain that we would find the petrel flock. The morning began auspiciously with 2 BLUE WHALES just outside of the breakwater! In glassy waters, blows backlit by the sun, it was a breath-taking sight! Luckily, we had upgraded our boat to the New Holiday, where photographers could get great shots from the top drive. The Coast Guard breakwater was alive with rocky shorebirds: SURFBIRD (1), BLACK TURNSTONE (19), RUDDY TURNSTONE (1), WANDERING TATTLER (1), and a PEREGRINE FALCON was on the radio tower along Cannery Row. ELEGANT TERNS (95) were still along the row, and Jim Danzenbaker spotted a BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE in the same area. We headed to the "shearwater zone" and promptly recorded 6 species of them and NORTHERN FULMAR (10): SOOTY (13), SHORT-TAILED (1), PINK-FOOTED (52), BULLER'S (6), FLESH-FOOTED (1), and BLACK-VENTED (36). October is probably just about the best month to see Flesh-footed Shearwater. On this day, the one that we found, gave us great views and stayed around the boat for all to see well. Pushing out to the storm-petrel spot, we found all 3 jaegers and South Polar Skua, the usual gulls, COMMON MURRES, RHINOCEROS and CASSIN'S AUKLETS, and surprisingly, two pairs of XANTUS' MURRELETS! The murrelets sat on the water, and all on board had excellent views. This was a real treat. Fortunately, most of the folks who had missed murrelets the day prior, were on board this day! (always worth doing more than one trip, if one is travelling a long distance).

We arrived at the storm-petrel patch, and alas, could only find scattered individuals, no flocks. I was severely disappointed. It just goes to show how ethereal these flocks really can be.

All was not gloomy, however, as this day, 12-15 BAIRD'S BEAKED WHALES showed up. What a show it was! See movies of our encounter here.  It is not unusual for Baird's to hang around an area for several days. So, I was not surprised. But, what stunned all of us was the behavioral display that we were about to witness. The whales, once again, directly approached our vessel, in stark contrast to general knowledge of these whales being shy of vessels. They put on a show, tail-slapping, breaching, and even one individual, spy-hopped, beak-first, with that bulbous head, straight out of the water, all of this right next to our boat!! This behavior went on for well over an hour, maybe two. Every time I wanted to leave, the whales would surface right next to our boat. Once they seemed to nearly go under our boat. Diving and blowing synchronously, they stayed with us, until we finally left them. At one point, I believe that I saw them defecate, as gulls swarmed down to feed on it. Photographers were ecstatic on the top drive, shooting film like machine guns. I would not even want to venture as to how many rolls of film were shot. I cannot capture how exciting and unique this experience was for me. In over 27 year's of trips, I have never seen such a display. (I have seen Baird's every year). Our skipper, Nick Lemon, said that he has never seen anything like it, and he has been on the ocean since he was 10 years old.

Video still captured by Leslie Lieurance.

We ended the day following a herd of 600 LONG-BEAKED COMMON DOLPINS and their attendant shearwaters, all feeding. Shearwaters often follow the common dolphin herds when they are feeding. The trip returned to the dock later than planned. We just had too much FUN!

These three trips show us that the fall season is progressing: no Arctic Terns were found (being more common earlier, especially August and September); very few Sabine's Gulls were found (also more common in August and September), and none was found on the Oct 6 trip; most of the Sooty Shearwaters have departed for the southern hemisphere, making odd shearwaters, such as Flesh-footed easier to find; Black-vented Shearwater and Northern Fulmar numbers are increasing, as they likely will into the winter months; the first of more-to-come Short-tailed Shearwaters are arriving; Black-footed Albatrosses have left (only 1 on 2 trips, and none on one trip); the second Black-legged Kittiwake has been recorded, and numbers will likely increase into the winter; loons, grebes, and scoters are arriving. Indications are that we are close to the cusp of the fall/winter season.

Debra Shearwater

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