On 95-12-22, Alvaro Jaramillo writes:

Re: Long Beach / northern fulmars

> Red Phalaropes are everywhere here in the Bay Area in California. Most are
>on the ocean side, but many have made it to the bayside of the Santa Cruz
>mountains. On our CBC here, San Mateo Co, we had 62 which is well above
>average! Northern Fulmars are also high this year, and many are hanging out
>just offshore in gull flocks. Ancient Murrelets appear to be more common
>than usual in southern California this year.
>
>

Thanks for your report from central California. The ancient murrelet (ANMU)
thrust south this year is interesting. I was stunned when we got into an
area along the Humbolt Co. coast with some 2,000 ANMU along that wild stretch
alone in late November, and I couldn't really pay much mind to them because
of other cruise objectives (harbor porpoise). What was especially memorable
however was one sunny, warm, slick calm day, spending the day running around
in a little zodiac surrounded by ANMU to conduct work on the porpoise. All
along there, they were in pairs to little groups of 20 or so.

>From there, far fewer numbers were scattered south to Monterrey, but north
of Humbolt Co, I saw ABSOLUTELY NONE along the entire Oregon / Washington
coast until we got inside and especially well inside in the Strait of Juan de
Fuca. We may have been too far offshore in those areas, although on two
occasions we worked nearshore and shelf waters (off Ocean Shores - the mouth
of the Columbia River, and a section of mid-Oregon coast) for a couple days..

In a personal email from a friend at the La Jolla NMFS Lab, mentioned that
375 were counted just from that remarkable cliff hanging government facility
alone. I noted in passing (BirdChat) a reference to the San Diego CBC, but
numbers were nowhere near that total. I saw 20 or 30 from shore last Spring
(mid-Mar - mid-May), all flying north past Point Piedras Blancas, San Luis
Obispo Co. Most of those were singles and pairs. Hopefully, I'll be back
there again this Spring. It's a hot spot! ...and quite similar to Pigeon
Point.

Richard A. Rowlett <pagodroma at aol.com>
Bellevue, WA, USA