Subject: Tweeters web page/links / pelagic news
Date: Nov 3 15:54:27 1996
From: PAGODROMA at aol.com - PAGODROMA at aol.com


Thanks to **DAN VICTOR** and everyone else involved in putting together the
fine Tweeters home web page including all the useful links such as those to
OBOL. I was especially thrilled to see Tim Shelmerdine's terrific series of
photos of the Heceta Banks (Oregon) WHITE-CAPPED (SHY) ALBATROSS (10/5) -- no
doubt about that one!! Figures though -- the Oregon bunch launches a 3-week
belated "chase" trip for our STREAKED SHEARWATER (9/13) and totally nail one
better. Now that's utter unadulterated one-upsmanship!! :-)) or is it :-((.
Anyway, congratulations!!

Also, having not been signed on to the BBS for some time, I was pleased to
find the Tweeters Digests included and thus, easily able to get a sense for
what's been going on around here while I've been away and at sea since
mid-July. I'm still unsubscribed -- just don't have time for an impacted
mail box (the web page works fine right now), and I'm only in town for a few
days before heading back to San Diego for 2 or 3 or 8 months, or forever.
Who knows? I don't know; I just have to play this game of life one day at a
time right now. Anyway, I'm about to commence the routine, burn on the main
line I-5 Seattle<>San Diego commute... yet again! The good news though is
that it only takes a few minutes longer than crossing the 520 bridge, or
crawling through downtown, or doing the 405 during rush hour /
con(de)struction these days ;-)).

BTW, the third leg of the ORCAWALE cruise onboard the NOAA R/V "McArthur"
didn't yield much of note apart from quite a few RED-TAILED TROPICBIRDS,
mostly 200-300 nm off Oregon and California, and scattered Xantus' and
Craveri's Murrelets off both states. RTTB is one to definitely *expect* one
day on the periphery of Washington State in the 'way out there' pelagic zone
-- southern B.C. too, probably. One of those sightings was ~130nm off
central Oregon (Mike Force has the details). I think I would have to rank
them as "not rare" out in the far offshore zone -- late summer in blue and
warm water (18-20C). We saw as many as three at a time hovering over the
flying bridge for up to 30 minutes, calling and peering straight down at us.
I think there was another DARK-RUMPED (HAWAIIAN) PETREL on this leg as well.
Again, Mike has the details, when and if he ever gets back to Vancouver
(BC). Apart from the occasional RTTB and XAMU & CRMU, it is really really
dead, dead, dead way out there beyond the shelf break with hours passing in
between birds sometimes. Kind of reminds me of the Sargasso Sea (one Cory's
Shearwater and one Black-headed Gull ONLY, for 7 days of effort!!) many many
years ago.

One other curiosity on the third leg: We had no less than *three* different
BURROWING OWLS come onboard at different times off northern and central
California, sometimes lingering for a few days each! What is this? Are they
pelagic migrants? Very tame, photogenic, and most amusing, especially when
they'd perch on the wind vane atop the jack staff on the bow and just twirl
around in the wind. They seemed not in want of food. One bird managed to
snag a deck bound Leach's Storm Petrel during the night. All we found the
next day was a wing, a leg and foot, a few feathers, and little spots of
white wash ...and a pellet. I think they were munching on some of the
assorted songbirds as well -- nothing too wild amongst them apart from a
Magnolia, and Palm Warbler, and Northern Waterthrush. Mike thought he heard
a Red-throated Pipit and there was some kind of intriguing longspur other
than Lapland, perhaps Chestnut-collared or McCown's which we couldn't see
adequately -- mostly just heard it. We were unfamiliar with flight calls of
those species.

Then trouble struck. We lost a rudder off Pt. Piedras Blancas, CA, and
suspected damage to the shaft as well. Went to dry dock, Terminal Island /
San Pedro (totally *terminal* in every sense of the word!), braving the Santa
Anna wind whipped SoCal brush fires and resultant smoke, smog, and dust that
funneled through the area leaving the ship black with filth; wasted a week
there including surviving the threat of capsizing when the dry dock became
unstable and started to list; then had to go to San Diego to find another
dry dock -- another week lost. The remainder of the cruise was scrubbed.

Good 'ol Mike Force -- seabird die hard to the very end, will be riding the
"Mac" back to Seattle sometime this coming week as the ship transits (maybe
at a limp) back to it's home port on Lake Union, trying to beat the November
7 Ballard Locks closure. Once Mike's back home in Vancouver, and back
online, he can perhaps fill in some of the details from the past three month
ocean voyage off WA/OR/CA. Mike has done an excellent job putting together a
report form on the Oregon STREAKED SHEARWATER which should meet the demands
of the RBC, even without photo or specimen documentation.

Have a good winter folks! Cheers!

Richard Rowlett <pagodroma at aol.com>
Bellevue/Seattle, WA (sort of, but kind of in limbo right now)