I recall my first N. Fulmars. I found a flock of 50 feeding on a dead
Gray Whale just offshore at Bodega Bay back in 1967. Nobody believed me
and I haven't seen one from shore short of the Pribiloffs since. They
are very rare inshore down here I'd say.

Gene.

On Tue, 5 Dec 1995, Alvaro Jaramillo wrote:

>
> >"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
>
>