copyright 2006 Shearwater Journeys

Hello, Seabirders,

Shearwater Journeys trip from Monterey Bay on Sunday, September 3, 2006 was full of surprises. Highlights included a FALLOUT OF "RAINING SEABIRDS" and saving a HUMPBACK WHALE that was entangled in fishing gear.

Excellent weather and seas prevailed throughout our trip. The sea surface temperature ranged from 56-58 F, coming down from the high of 60 F which endured the month of August. This is good news for seabirds, and will bring a better mix to Monterey. It was a Beaufort 1, with uniformly, high overcast skies, perfect for finding most seabirds. So, we headed south to the Sur Ridge. The leaders for this trip were Clay Kempf, Jennifer Green, Don Doolittle, and Debra Shearwater.

Off Cypress Point, we found our first whale, a HUMPBACK. It was logging at the surface, oddly near two floating buoys for black cod fishing. We quickly realized that the whale's tail, or at least some part of its anatomy, was entangled in the fishing gear. The whale could breathe, but it could not move. Debra and the skipper, Tinker, immediately sprung to action, making numerous phone calls, which mostly lead to nowhere. The United States Coast Guard stated that they had been "monitoring the situation for three days." Monitoring what? Other agencies that we called were unavailable. (It was a holiday weekend, after all). Finally, Tinker called one of the researchers that he knew.

She managed to get clearance from NOAA for some folks to go out and free the whale. They did this, and we understand that it was videotaped for the news last night. (Since I don't watch TV, I don't know if it was covered, or not). But, we did get the outcome-the tangled whale was freed and headed straight off for Hawaii at high speed!
The Monterey County Herald has an accurate accounting of the day's events.

Our trip was fairly "normal" - encountering a smidgen of species here and there - RED-NECKED PHALAROPES in the harbor, plentiful ELEGANT TERNS along the kelp beds of Cannery Row, SOOTY SHEARWATERS appearing just off Point Pinos, BACK-FOOTED ALBATROSSES a few more miles out, then PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERS, one PARASITIC JAEGER, COMMON MURRES and RHINOCEROS AUKLETS in small flocks.

Suddenly the entire cadence of the trip quickened, and we were in the midst of a true SEABIRD FALLOUT! It was, quite literally, "raining jaegers"! Flocks of pink-footed shearwaters, mixed with a sprinkling of Buller's Shearwaters were popping up all over. I stopped the boat to double check on a murre (thinking possible thick-billed), and a SOUTH POLAR SKUA picked up off the water and made several passes over our vessel, giving a great show. We had a complete slam on the jaegers. Small numbers of terns and SABINE'S GULLS cruised up our wake. But, the sheer numbers of seabirds meant that we had found a migrating flock, much the way one hopes for a "warbler fallout" in migration at their hotspots (Texas coast, Cape May, NJ, etc.)

It is always important to remember that food is not evenly distributed on the ocean, and hence, neither are the seabirds. And, a wave of migrants is always possible, but seldom witnessed as such a dramatic event.

We invite you to join the Shearwater Journeys leaders on the following trips:
FRIDAY, SEP 8TH from BODEGA BAY with Lisa Hug, Jennifer Green, Jim Danzenbaker, Mike Danzenbaker, Don Doolittle, & Debra Shearwater (plenty of spaces open, see our 8/28 trip report)
SATURDAY, SEP 9TH from MONTEREY with Clay Kempf, Denise Wight, Brian Sullivan, Jim Danzenbaker, Mike Danzenbaker, Don Doolittle, & Debra Shearwater (only 3 spaces open)
SUNDAY SEP 10TH from MONTEREY offshore to the ALBACORE GROUNDS with Jennifer Green, Scott Terrill, Linda Terrill, Clay Kempf, Don Doolittle, & Debra Shearwater (only 4 spaces open)
MONDAY SEP 11TH from MONTEREY to the SUR RIDGE with Ted Chandik, Brian
Sullivan, Jim Danzenbaker, Don Doolittle, & Debra Shearwater (only 5 spaces open)
FRIDAY SEP 15 from BODEGA BAY with Lisa Hug, Peter Pyle, Steve Howell,
Jim Danzenbaker, & Debra Shearwater (8 spaces open)
SUNDAY SEP 17 from FORT BRAGG with Lisa Hug, Jim Danzenbaker, & Debi Shearwater (plenty of spaces, see our August trip reports!)
FUTURE TRIPS: We have only a very limited number of spaces open on the Sep 22 & 23 Monterey trips. Spaces are open on the following trips: Sep 24, 29, & 30; Oct 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, 22, 28.

The full species list for the SEPTEMBER 3, 2006 MONTEREY trip follows:

WESTERN GREBE-1
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS-23
NORTHERN FULMAR-5
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER-240
BULLER'S SHEARWATER-23
SOOTY SHEARWATER-3000+
SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER-1
BROWN PELICAN-75
BRANDT'S CORMORANT-450+
PELAGIC CORMORANT-3
GREAT BLUE HERON-1 standing on the kelp beds
GREAT EGRET-2 standing on the kelp beds
SNOWY EGRET-3 standing on the kelp beds
BLACK TURNSTONE-7
DOWITCHER SP.-19
RED PHALAROPE-1
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE-50
SOUTH POLAR SKUA-1
POMARINE JAEGER-38
POMARINE/PARASITIC-5
PARASITIC JAEGER-5
PARASITIC/LONG-TAILED-7
LONG-TAILED JAEGER-5
HEERMANN'S GULL-80+
CALIFORNIA GULL-20+
THAYER'S GULL-1
WESTERN GULL-350+
SABINE'S GULL-25
ELEGANT TERN-234
COMMON TERN-2
COMMON/ARCTIC TERN-9
ARCTIC TERN-2
COMMON MURRE-176
PIGEON GUILLEMOT-2
RHINOCEROS AUKLET-136
SEA OTTER-7
CALIFORNIA SEA LION-150
NORTHERN ELEPHANT SEAL-1
HARBOR SEAL-30
HUMPBACK WHALE-6 (+ one entangled & freed from fishing gear)
BLUE SHARK-1
BLACK PHOEBE-1 (19.8 miles offshore)
Red tide in the harbor
FLIP VESSEL OFFSHORE


Shearwaters forever,
Debi