>"Mostly a winter bird offshore California, abundant some years and scarce
>in others. Eruptions of abundance in early winter (October through
>December) are often followed by heavy mortality, evidenced by large numbers
>of emaciated beached corpses. Though fulmars are much more common offshore,
>during invasion years individuals may be seen at harbors waiting for scraps
>of fish, or from coastal points flying nearshore. Following invasion
>winters, individuals may be found throughout the next spring and into
>summer, but most summer birds are notiecably unhealthy and all may be, to
>some degree."
>
> -- Stallcup, Rich. 1990. Ocean birds of the nearshore Pacific. Pt.
Reyes
> Bird Observatory, CA. 214 pp. (found on p. 48)
>
Just thought I would add some observations from Califonia. Basically, the
Fulmars are in! On Saturday we saw a few from shore here, while on Sunday
300+ were seen at one site and 1000 were observed from another site here in
San Mateo County (just south of San Francisco). I am new here and I don't
know the details of status, but these numbers are large enough to consider
this an invasion year in my opinion. Also keep in mind that we are not
getting the awful winds and weather that you were getting up there.

Alvaro Jaramillo "You are better off not knowing
Half Moon Bay, CA how sausages and laws are made"
- From fortune cookie, Vancouver
alvaro at quake.net circa 1994
http://www.quake.net/~alvaro/index.html