Hello, Seabirders!

Shearwater Journeys August 24, 2007 pelagic trip from Monterey was nothing short of spectacular with thousands of seabirds constantly in view throughout the entire day, and marine mammals abundant. Tens of thousands, and perhaps a million shearwaters were offshore, including: 2 FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATERS, 680 BULLER'S SHEARWATERS, 350 PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERS, and at least 50,000 SOOTY SHEARWATERS. The first shearwater of the morning was a Buller's. This seems early for both Buller's, in these numbers, and for Flesh-foots, although I think that the Fleshyfoots show up when higher numbers of Buller's are present. We also had a grand slam in the jaeger department with: 3 SOUTH POLAR SKUAS, 15 POMARINE JAEGERS, 3 PARASITIC JAEGERS, and 5 LONG-TAILED JAEGERS. SABINE'S GULLS put on a pretty good show, too. BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSSES are still around in good numbers. Fewer numbers of alcids were present. Adding to the day's delight were several hundred PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS, NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE DOLPHINS, DALL'S PORPOISES, HUMPBACK and MINKE WHALES, and possibly 3 Striped Dolphins (rare in our area). It was a great day for photography with uniformly high overcast skies throughout the day.

We thank the many participants who supported this trip. The leaders were: Brian Sullivan, Jennifer Green, Ted Chandik, and Debra Shearwater. The complete species list follows.

AUGUST 24, 2007 MONTEREY BAY

PACIFIC LOON- 1
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS- 15 (one banded)
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 350
FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 2
BULLER'S SHEARWATER- 680
SOOTY SHEARWATER- 50,000+
BROWN PELICAN- 20
BRANDT'S CORMORANT- 2500+
PELAGIC CORMORANT- 5
BLACK OYSTERCATCHER- 2
BLACK TURNSTONE- 7
MARBLED GODWIT- 1
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE- 50
SOUTH POLAR SKUA- 3
POMARINE JAEGER- 15
POMARINE/PARASITIC- 3
PARASITIC JAEGER- 3
PARASITIC/LONG-TAILED- 3
LONG-TAILED JAEGER- 5 (one adult with long tail)
HEERMANN'S GULL- 70
CALIFORNIA GULL- 20
WESTERN GULL- 450
SABINE'S GULL- 19
ELEGANT TERN- 6
COMMON MURRE- 50
PIGEON GUILLEMOT- 20
CASSIN'S AUKLET- 1
RHINOCEROS AUKLET- 30
BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD- 1
GREAT EGRET- 3
SEA OTTER- 20 (several with pups in the harbor)
CALIFORNIA SEA LION- 60
NORTHERN FUR SEAL- 1
HARBOR SEAL-20
MINKE WHALE- 1 (lunge feeding)
HUMPBACK WHALE- 6 (tail slapping)
NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE DOLPHIN- 30
PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN- 250
STRIPED DOLPHIN- 3 ?
DALL'S PORPOISE- 9
MOON JELLIES
EGG YOLK JELLIES

Monterey Bay sure looks like a great bet this fall! The September 8th trip is sold out. We have a great schedule and leader line up, as follows:

Sep 9 with Linda Terrill, Scott Terrill, Jennifer Green, Oscar Johnson, & Debra Shearwater
Sep 10 with Brian Sullivan, Alvaro Jaramillo, Alan Hopkins, Mike Rogers, Don Doolittle, & Debra Shearwater
Sep 11 with Brian Sullivan, Ted Chandik, Don Doolittle, & Debra Shearwater
Sep 21 with Brian Sullivan, Steve Howell, Jennifer Green, & Debra Shearwater
Sep 22 with Brian Sullivan, Steve Howell, Jennifer Green, Michael O'Brien, & Debra Shearwater
Sep 23 with Brian Sullivan, Steve Howell, Jennifer Green, Michael O'Brien, & Debra Shearwater
Sep 24 with Brian Sullivan, Steve Howell, Michael O'Brien, & Debra Shearwater
Sep 28 with Luke Cole, Steve Howell, Jennifer Green, Jim Danzenbaker, & Debra Shearwater
Sep 29 with Luke Cole, Steve Howell, Jim Danzenbaker, & Debra Shearwater
Oct 5 with Luke Cole, Clay Kempf, Mike Danzenbaker, Jennifer Green, & Debra Shearwater
Oct 6 with Scott Terrill, Linda Terrill, & Debra Shearwater
Oct 7 with Luke Cole, Clay Kempf, Scott Terrill, Linda Terrill, Don Doolittle, & Debra Shearwater (all of the leaders for the 2010 Antarctica charter)
Oct 12 with Clay Kempf, Jennifer Green, & Debra Shearwater
Oct 13 with Clay Kempf, Linda Terrill, Luke Cole, Oscar Johnson, & Debra Shearwater
Oct 14 with Brian Sullivan, Alan Hopkins, Jennifer Green, Oscar Johnson, & Debra Shearwater
Oct 20 with Clay Kempf, Scott Terrill, Linda Terrill, & Debra Shearwater

To make an advance reservation, please contact Debra Shearwater (full contact info below). I have been experiencing multiple-techno-meltdowns lately. Sorry for the delay in posting.

Shearwaters forever,

Debra Shearwater
PO Box 190
Hollister, CA 95024
831.637.8527