Following Greg's lead I'm forwarding this to tweeters in case some of you
haven't seen it.

Dan Victor, Seattle, WA <dvictor at u.washington.edu>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 1994 12:10:19 PDT
From: Greg Gillson <gregg at tdd.hbo.nec.com>
To: Oregon Birders On-line <obol at gaia.ucs.orst.edu>
Subject: Light-mantled Albatross in Cal.

The following account is the discovery of the first Northern Hemisphere
record of Light-mantled Albatross, seen off California earlier this week.
It is so exciting that I thought it worth sending to OBOL.

Actually, there is a record for the "mouth of the Columbia River" late in
the last century, but it and several other southern Pacific species got
this same label. They were no doubt obtained in the South Pacific and
mislabeled on the long seatrip.

--
Greg Gillson <gregg at tdd.hbo.nec.com>


**********************


From: Joe Morlan <joe.morlan at HIEAGLE.COM>
Subject: Light-mantled Albatross

Light-mantled Albatross (Phoebetria palpebtata)
Cordell Banks, Marin County, California
July 17, 1994
Joseph Morlan

Today we were on a chartered birding trip to the Cordell Banks
from Bodega Bay led by Rich Stallcup and Scott Terrill. It was
relatively calm with overcast skies and the birding and the
mammals were excellent. We had already seen at least 25 WILSON'S
STORM-PETRELS, 3 FORK-TAILED STORM-PETRELS, 5 LEACH'S
STORM-PETRELS, 2 CRAVERI'S MURRELETS, 4 LONG-TAILED JAEGER'S, 14
SABINE'S GULLS, several ARCTIC TERNS and 75 BLACK-FOOTED
ALBATROSSES. Marine Mammal highlights included 4 KILLER WHALES
which apparently had created a slick from a recent kill which
attracted all the WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS. We had also seen large
number of PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS along with a few NORTHERN
RIGHT WHALE DOLPHINS riding the bow of the boat and leaping out
of the water as well as the more expected DALL'S PORPOISES riding
the bow. We also had distant looks at a pod of BAIRD'S BEAKED
WHALES and we saw five species of pinnipeds to round out our
mammal list. This was already shaping up to be one of the best
pelagic trips I had been on in several years, when something
happened which took it off the scale of exciting birding
experiences.

I was in the stern when I noticed Rich Stallcup come running back
excitedly saying something about a "light albatross." I assumed
he had seen a Laysan Albatross and started scanning. Some
promising looking Western Gulls were sitting on the water, but I
saw no Laysan. Scott Terrill said something about a "light
albatross" but that it was gray, not a "white albatross." The
boat turned rather suddenly. Scott said it was probably an
aberrant Black-footed Albatross. I joined the rest of the crowd
on the bow and heard somebody mutter something about a possible
Short-tailed Albatross. We were at the same place where a
Short-tailed Albatross had been seen in November of 1985, also
found by Rich Stallcup.

Finally I saw the mystery bird, sitting on the water about 75
yards off the front of the boat and I realized it was something I
had never seen before. It had a much bigger head and shorter
neck than any Black-footed Albatross, I looked carefully at the
bill which seemed all dark. I still had Short-tailed Albatross
in my mind and was hoping to see a bright pink bill. Such was
not to be. As we approached, the black hood contrasted with a
pale gray mantle and slightly darker grayish-brown body. The
tail appeared very long and projected well beyond the folded
wings, giving the rear-end the appearance of a female Pintail.
Scott Terrill suddenly became very excited about the possibility
that this really was a LIGHT-MANTLED ALBATROSS.

I was familiar with this species from books and photos, but never
expected to see it off California. Scott said to look for an
eye-ring. As the boat slowly approached, a small white crescent
right behind the eye became apparent and it suddenly hit me that
I was really looking at a LIGHT-MANTLED ALBATROSS and probably
the first sighting of this species in the Northern Hemisphere. I
became very excited and reflexively uttered some profanity for
which I hope I will be forgiven considering the circumstances.

Fortunately we had Chris Corben, a native of Australia, on board
who had experience with this species and the similar Sooty
Albatross (Phoebetria fusca) of the Southern Oceans. He advised
us that some immature Sooty Albatrosses can have a very light
mantle and can look very much like the Light-mantled Albatross. A
key mark to look for, was a pale stripe on the bill. This is blue
on the Light-mantled and yellow on the Sooty. It took a long time
before we were close enough to see this stripe, but we did
eventually get very close to the bird and were able to see the
blue stripe running from the gape down along the middle of the
lower mandible and fading to a point toward the tip.

The identification was now fully established, and many
photographer took lots of pictures. The bird was also documented
by at least two video cameras, all at very close range. Some of
the photos should show adjacent Black-footed Albatrosses and
Western Gulls for comparison. After spending at least a half
hour studying this bird, we decided to leave it undisturbed
sitting on the water in hopes that others might be able to see it
on subsequent days. I took a few notes while watching the bird.

My experience with records committees, suggested there would be a
question about the natural occurrence of this bird. Some
committee members would inevitably claim there was no pattern to
the species migration which could account for it getting to the
Northern Hemisphere without human assistance. E.g., the
California Committee rejected the Swallow- tailed Gull seen in
Monterey Bay in June 1985 because they thought the bird had been
artificially transported by ship even though there was no
evidence that it had. I think it is quite possible the same
argument may prevail with this albatross.


With this in mind, I consulted "A Field Guide to Seabirds of the
World" by Peter Harrison and found the range map on page 191
indicated that Light-mantled Albatross ranges in the Humboldt
Current north to the coast of Peru. This is the furthest north
the species gets. Harrison also says that this bird follows
ships. I think it is probable that this bird may have simply
followed one or more ships north from the west coast of South
America to reach California. Of course the possibility of
captive transport can never be ruled out.

The best documentation will be photos and video tape, but the
following description based on notes taken while watching the
birds are submitted for the record:

The head was all coffee brown forming a fairly distinct dark
hood including the chin which blended on the nape with a pale
tan-gray back and upper wing coverts (seen when the bird
stretched its wings) and with the rest of the body including
the foreneck and throat which was medium tan. There was a
smooth ripple effect where the darker tan body blended with
the gray of the back, but there was no scaling to the
plumage. Instead it was a very soft, warm solid coloration.
Chris Corben said this made it an adult.

At close range, a bold white half crescent was obvious behind
each eye. These crescents extended only slightly in front of
the top and bottom of each eye. The eye was black with a
very slight hint of reddish. The bill was larger than that
of Black-footed Albatross. The culmen was almost straight,
only very slightly concave. The bill was all dark except for
a neat blue stripe beginning at the gape, and then sweeping
down and out the midline of the lower mandible, below the
tomium. The nostril tubes were visible on either side, and
were rather thin and long compared to Black-footed and Laysan
Albatrosses which I've seen in the past. A slight hook was
evident at the tip of the blunt bill.

The shoulders were very broad and the neck very short, giving
this bird a much more powerful appearance compared to the
small headed, long-necked Black-footed Albatrosses nearby.
The tip of the bill was much closer to the water than on
Black- footed. Also the wings were folded differently. On
Black-foot the wings are folded on top, concealing most of
the back. On the Light-mantled Sooty, the wings were folded
low and the back looked relatively flat, quite unlike the
humped appearance of the Black-foots.

The wings were very dark coffee brown and contrasted with the
warm tan body feathers that covered some of the wing coverts.
The outer primary shafts were visible and two or three outer
feathers had white shafts. The tail was very long and
pointed, sticking out well beyond the folded tail. This gave
the rear end a very different appearance from the
Black-footed Albatross. At least one rectrix showed a
yellowish shaft. When the bird stretched it's wings, the
underwings appeared the same dark coffee brown (almost
blackish) as the upper-wings although some slight pale
mottling was visible. The legs and feet were grayish. We
looked for bands on the legs but saw none. There were no
obvious signs of recent captivity and no unexpected feather
wear although some of the tertials looked a little frayed.

All participants on this trip got excellent views of this
beautiful bird.

NOTES:

This species appears in most books under the name Light-mantled
Sooty Albatross but in Appendix B of the Sixth edition of the AOU
Checklist it is under the name Light-mantled Albatross. This
checklist says "A specimen taken by Townsend near the 'mouth of
the columbia River, Oregon' is the only report for northern
waters; the locality has been regarded as erroneous."

--Joe Morlan, Albany, CA
Joe.Morlan at hieagle.com.