Greetings All --

Sorry for this lumped multi-subject-recipient E-mail. I only have time to do
this once.

Some casual seabird sightings and perceptions: [This was not a 'dedicated'
seabird effort in any sense of the word, but consisted of about 6 hours per
day, on an intermittant rotating watch schedule, looking around at or for
marine mammals, largely with the aid of Fujinon 25X150 binoculars.]

Just hot off the ship from a cetacean research cruise on the California
slope, Feb. 11 - Mar. 4, working the steep slope, sea mounts and canyons the
length of the state. Nearly a month's worth, and all in all with a few
exceptions, pretty slow and dull for both cetaceans and seabirds.
Black-legged Kittiwakes may be of greatest interest and significance --
ubiquitous and everywhere all the way to just north of Baja (southern
research boundary), but almost entirely confined to the 20-mile wide strip on
the break and slope; few inshore or offshore from there. I have no
comparative experience for February in this area, so do not really know just
how significant this may be but suspect that such a strong showing may be a
bit above the norm. There were huge frenzied feeding flocks of 600-1000+ in
the Pioneer Sea mount and Canyon area associated with Lags, Lissos,
Humpbacks, and numerous Northern Fur Seals, and a sprinkling of shearwaters
(SOSH, STSH, PFSH), assorted larid gulls, and Pomarine Jaegers, all working
schools of some kind of small fish. I was impressed by the concentration of
fur seals in just that small area, a few hundred(!) in fact, but very few and
widely scattered elsewhere.

Weather was windy and rough most of the time, average Beaufort sea state 5-6
(18-27kts) and high swells -- perfect for _Pterodroma_ you'd think, ...no?
Well... NO! No Murphy's, no 'cookilaria', and bagged only two Mottled for
the whole trip. Laysan Albatross numbers and distribution were rather
interesting, generally outnumbering Black-footed 2:1, and Laysan's were
around in small numbers (typically 2-5) all the time from off Cape Mendocino
to Point Sur. I was rather surprised at the paucity of Black-footed
Albatross overall. There were no Black-footed at all south of Point Sur, and
the only Laysan encounters south of there were singles 40 and 115 nm SW of
Point Conception. An immature **Short-tailed Albatross** (huge, brown, pink
'bubblegum' bill) was seen over Bodega Canyon (2/19), and presumably the same
bird a little further north in the wake of a small fishing boat along with
about 15 Laysan and 5 or 6 Black-footed the following day (2/20). As usual,
and unlike Laysan and Black-footed, the Short-tailed behaved like
Short-tailed's usually do, and totally ignore a passing vessel that's not
offering something to eat or scavenge.

Northern Fulmars were ubiquitous and widespread throughout the area. Not
especially numerous but ever present ranging all the way south, and running
about 95% dark morph. There were no "unusual" alcids, only Rhinos, Cassins,
and Murres, and not a single puffin! Inshore, the sea surface between Pigeon
Point and Half Moon Bay was littered with hundreds of Common Murres on the
last afternoon/evening, March 4th, constituting the largest at sea
concentration I've seen south of Alaska. Very few storm petrels, and most of
that handful (white-rumped Leach's and Fork-tailed) were 100+ nm SW of Point
Conception, and a light sparse sprinkling of Fork-tailed seaward of the
canyons and 2000 fathom line off S.F. and Monterey. Ditto for Red
Phalaropes. All in all, it was probably more interesting by what *wasn't*
seen and where than those that were. Ditto as well for cetaceans!

We spent one interesting day (2/24) at anchor in the lee of Point Sur, about
1/4 mile off the cliffs and beach at St. Lucia, after being driven inshore by
50-60kt pressure gradient NE gales offshore. Gorgeous there in the
protective lee, slick calm, sunny, warm, 70F, and some fun birds about
including 4 Ancient Murrelets just dozing away the day right beside the ship
in a loose strip of kelp. They just sat there like decoys, showing no signs
of life apart from every 5-10 minutes or so, rearing up to flutter their
wings, but were never seen swimming around or diving. Fantastic close views!
There was a nice comparative mix of Western and Clark's Grebes, a gorgeous
Red-necked Grebe molting into breeding plumage, and an Oldsquaw. By night
(early am), a surreal view of comet Hale-Bopp hanging above the Big Sur coast
range, and mightily enhanced with the ships hand-held starlight night scope,
along with the star-studded sky and eerie landscape. Totally trippy!

Cetacean species list:
Humpback Whale
Gray Whale
Sperm Whale
Baird's Beaked Whale
Cuvier's Beaked Whale
Killer Whale
Pacific White-sided Dolphin ("Lags" referred to above)
Risso's Dolphin
Northern Right Whale Dolphin ("Lissos" referred to above)
Dall's Porpoise

Tweets -- Sorry... no report for Washington/Oregon. The weather was just way
too snotty and unforgiving with gales and rain to do or see anything out
there in early-mid Feb! That was the same tragic day the Coast Guard boat
capsized off the NW Washington coast taking three lives with it. It was not
a nice way to start a cruise! Just had to hang on and eat, sleep, read,
and/or watch movies, ...or be seasick if that was your thing ;-)

Jim -- Re: ...Debra Shearwater... The query was nothing important. I was
just going to tell her that a friend had sent me a copy of the Monterey
Pelagic video, and that I had viewed it during my visit to the Dentist here
in Bellevue back in January, with one of those amazing sort of 'virtual
reality' headsets while having my teeth cleaned and 3-hour dental adventure.
I had mentioned this experience to another E-mail friend who wrote back,
informing me that Debra Shearwater was once upon a time an oral hygienist. I
just thought that she might be amused by the irony that my first viewing of
her video occurred with me strapped to the dentist chair. :-) Quite a good
video I thought, and video headsets is definitely the way to pass the hours
at the dentist. Amazing those headsets! It's like being right there in a
state of the art theater, big screen, and 3-D even!! Anyway,
Congratulations on a fine job with the video!

Brad -- I should be down on the 9th or so. Thanks for the tip about the
Ferruginous Hawks. There were 5 in the Hearst pastures across the road last
winter, but they had just left by the time I arrived. Getting down to PB a
week earlier this season, maybe those you mention will still be around.
Meanwhile, up this way, 200" of snow piled up at Mt. Baker I'm told, and
still coming down. It'll be a long time before anyone goes looking for
White-tailed Ptarmigan up there this year I suspect. Please feel free to
forward this message, [the pelagic part at least], to *Calbird-L* if you
like. I'm not subscribed to that listserve and don't know the rules for
posting non-member material. I love your genuinely original E-mail address
BTW!! Very clever combination of screen name and server
<gonebrdn at lightspeed.net> LOL!! And I thought Greg's <slobird> was a good
one. It must be the agreeable climate in SLO Co. that stimulates you guys
and enhances one's creativity and originality.

Totally stunning and glowing scoot into San Francisco by night BTW, crystal
clear, slick calm, and dazzling, sailing inbound under the 'Golden Gate',
along the waterfront with the city all ablaze, to finally tie up at Pier 30,
right under the 'Bay Bridge' and greeted on the pier with pizza and beer and
party for all. The awesome ever changing reflections on the water inbound
through the bay were a tapestry of nature manipulating man's creations into
art at it's finest! Life just can't get any better than all this! :-)))

Gotta run. Quick turn-around for me, fresh off the ship in sunny, even balmy
San Francisco yesterday, only to leave and fly into a cold wretchedly rainy
and hopelessly traffic snarled Seattle, float my car out of the puddles at
Sand Point, gear up for a few more months (or rest of the year) in the field,
and as of now, I'm on my way south for the gray whale cow/calf migration
(seabirds too ...of course!) on the central coast again.

Richard Rowlett <Pagodroma at aol.com>
NOAA R/V 'McArthur', S.F., CA, USA (yesterday)
Bellevue, WA, USA (today)
Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, CA, USA (tomorrow)
Open to suggestions (for later)
No Fixed Address (all the time)