Shearwater Journeys, P.O. Box 190, Hollister, CA 95024 USA Phone: 831-637-8527
copyright 2006 Shearwater Journeys

Monterey Bay 30 September 2006
by Debi Shearwater


Photos by Steve N G Howell and Brian Sullivan
Hello, Seabirders!

Shearwater Journey's pelagic trip from Monterey Bay today produced an awesome megararity - a STREAKED SHEARWATER, spotted by Scott Terrill, as it was flying up the wake of our boat while I was chumming with anchovies. We were 8.2 n. miles wsw of Cypress Point and managed to follow the Streaked Shearwater for nearly 45 minutes. Every single birder on board the boat saw the bird, and some captured excellent digital photographs. In addition, we found 8,000 STORM-PETRELS, mostly ASHY STORM-PETRELS, along with 200 BLACK STORM-PETRELS, and 2-3 WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS. Steve Howell spotted a LEUCISTIC ASHY STORM-PETREL in amongst all of these birds. This Ashy Storm-Petrel had a white belly, dirty white rump, and some white feathers in the back. Brian Sullivan captured a good digital image of this individual, no easy task given the numbers of birds flying about! Lesser highlights included a single BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS (most have departed, as is usual at this time of year); a single TUFTED PUFFIN; 26 SOUTH POLAR SKUAS; 96 JAEGERS; 21 SABINE'S GULLS; 4 CASSIN'S AUKLETS (very few around, and often not giving great views, but finally, we had great looks of some sitting on the water).

This trip was scheduled as an "Offshore Monterey: Albacore Grounds" trip, but albacore did not show up in Monterey this year. (They are in Oregon). When some of the passengers asked me where I was going to go this morning, I replied, "I'm going where I think I will find the most seabirds." The reports that I have had offshore from Monterey were devoid of seabirds. With this in mind, I asked our captain, David Lemon, to head north to the canyons off Ano Nuevo, which we did. In the early morning hours, we saw many, many jaegers and skuas. They seemed to be falling from the sky. (In the late afternoon, we found a flock of 8 POMARINE JAEGERS sitting on the water!) We encountered several small flocks of SABINE'S GULLS and the usual variety of shearwaters.

The sea conditions were as absolutely perfect as they could be. It was so flat calm, that it was nearly greasy-looking. Skies were high overcast. Just marvelous conditions.

About 10 am, we began to encounter flocks of storm-petrels. We spent something like the next 3 hours sifting through all of the storm-petrels that were rafting in flocks on the water. We actually saw Ashy Storm-Petrels picking up very small fish, and carrying them in their beaks - eating them! I have never seen this before. Several WILSON'S were pointed out. Then, Steve Howell spotted the white-bellied ASHY STORM-PETREL. It was found two more times and Brian Sullivan got some good photos of it. This was a leucistic individual. (Two other birding boats were out and we made calls to tell them where to find the storm-petrel flocks. I have seen quite a few leucistic Ashys over the 31 years that I have been doing trips from Monterey - some with completely white heads, others with white bellies, one with a white collar, and one that was rusty-colored with translucent wings. I've also seen almost completely white Least Storm-Petrels (and have a photo of one of these types). In addition, this sort of thing happens routinely in a variety of shearwaters, too.

While we were working the storm-petrels, a BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS flew in for another photo op. Finally, we headed south to Cypress Point to check out for shearwaters again, since we were saturated with storm-petrels. Then, we received a report of two BLUE WHALES. So, I decided that we should head for them but the folks who reported them, lost the sighting. Linda Terrill sighted the blue whales again and we were on track to see them. I was at the stern, chumming with popcorn and anchovies. Many gulls were following our boat and sometimes flocks of BRANT'S CORMORANTS flew by, checking out the food situation. This is something that I see more commonly in the winter months.

Scott Terrill came back to relieve me from chumming duties. Then, suddenly he just shouted, "STREAKED SHEARWATER!!" I didn't have any bins on at the time, so I just looked at this big, whitish shearwater, flying up our wake! Sure enough! I yelled several expletives, and everyone on board was now watching the shearwater as it flew very closely to the boat! The very white head, white underparts, pale bill, long, wedge-shaped tail, white face - all the field marks were just standing out. The shearwater flew off. Many of the leaders followed it for a long distance. We thought it was lost, but Linda Terrill picked it up again, sitting in a small flock with other shearwaters. A Pomarine Jaeger chased it, and photographers captured this, too! It flew, and again, we picked it up, sitting on the water. This continued for nearly 45 minutes. Not that many shearwaters were around at the time. This made it easy to follow. Finally, we decided to head in the direction of the blue whales, but we never did really see them well. However, Brian Sullivan brought the boat to a halt with a TUFTED PUFFIN that he found, sitting on the water! What a day!! Exhausted and thrilled, we returned to the harbor with many thanks to the Shearwater Journey's leaders and our captain and first mate.

The leaders for this trip were Steve Howell, Brian Sullivan, Scott Terrill, Linda Terrill, & Debra Shearwater. Our captain was David Lemon; first mate was Larry. Many thanks to all of the birders who came on this trip. The complete species list follow.

We have spaces available on all of the remaining trips on our schedule. Trips from Monterey include Oct 8, 14, 15, 22, 28. Trips from Bodega Bay include Oct 9 & 13. Please email me, if you would like to make a reservation for any of these trips: .

SEPTEMBER 30, 2006 OFFSHORE MONTEREY
EARED GREBE-7
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS-1
NORTHERN FULMAR-1
****STREAKED SHEARWATER-1
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER-245
BULLER'S SHEARWATER-25
SOOTY SHEARWATER-2000
WILSON'S STORM-PETREL-2 OR 3
ASHY STORM-PETREL-8000
BLACK STORM-PETREL-200
BROWN PELICAN-150
BRANDT'S CORMORANT-900
PELAGIC CORMORANT-1
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE-125
SOUTH POLAR SKUA-26
POMARINE JAEGER-68
POMARINE/PARASITIC-10
PARASITIC JAEGER-6
JAEGER sp.-12
HEERMANN'S GULL-250+
CALIFORNIA GULL-1000+
WESTERN GULL-300
WESTERN/GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL-1
SABINE'S GULL-21
ELEGANT TERN-48
COMMON TERN-2
COMMON/ARCTIC TERN/2
COMMON MURRE-18
PIGEON GUILLEMOT-1
CASSIN'S AUKLET-4
RHINOCEROS AUKLET-80
TUFTED PUFFIN-1
SEA OTTER-1
CALIFORNIA SEA LION-400
NORTHERN FUR SEAL-11
NORTHERN ELEPHANT SEAL-3
HARBOR SEAL-10
BLUE WHALE-2
HUMPBACK WHALE-22
PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN-80
DALL'S PORPOISE-24
OCEAN SUNFISH-2
BLUE SHARK-2


Debra Love Shearwater
PO Box 190
Hollister, CA 95024
USA
831/637-8527
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