Subject: S Cal pelagic trip report
Date: Sep 7 19:58:59 2003
From: Christine Vadai - christinevadai at sprynet.com


Hi Tweeters,

Brief report on a pelagic trip out of Santa Barbara this Saturday:

This was a scheduled tour from the LA Audubon Society, specifically targeting the Red-billed Tropicbird, but picking up anything else along the way. It was on board a fast catamaran the "Condor Express", left at 7am and didn't return to port until nearly 10pm (though it was 3 hours late due to rough waters at sea, forcing a more circuitous route back). It was a bit different from more northerly pelagic trips in that there weren't huge numbers of birds, but there was a very impressive variety of species, and a lot more looks at fish and cetaceans lounging around near the surface.

Bottom line, its a trip well worth taking. I saw all of my target birds (5 lifers) as well as some mammals I was very happy to see in person: Finback and Blue Whales. There were also huge numbers of White-sided Dolphins, and we got excellent looks at Rizzo's Dolphins and even a Swordfish. There were lots of opportunities for a lot of different species, because of our travelling over constantly changing depths. There was a big temperature differential as well, starting in the 50s up north, and gradually becoming warmer until it was 66 degrees where the tropicbirds were spotted.

Birdwise, here's the list (including birds spotted on shore from the boat):

Northern Fulmar - 1 white morph
Pink-footed Shearwater - lots
Buller's Shearwater - several
Sooty Shearwater - lots
Least Storm-Petrel - 1
Ashy Storm-petrel - lots
Fork-tailed Storm-petrel - 1 spotted with some Black
Black Storm-petrel - lots
Red-billed Tropicbird - 12 total for the trip
Brown Pelican - 2 flying in the channel on departure, tons elsewhere
Brandt's Cormorant - several near the Channel Islands
Pelagic Cormorant - at least 1 near the Channel Islands
Great Blue Heron - 1 in the harbor
Marbled Godwit - a flock of 7 flying toward land, deep in LA County waters
Whimbrel - several in SB harbor
Willet - several on sandy banks in SB harbor
Red-necked Phalarope - 1 in the channel
Red Phalarope - lots out at sea
Sanderling - small flock on sandy banks in harbor
South Polar Skua - 2 flyovers
Pomarine Jaeger - several
Parasitic Jaeger - at least 2
Long-tailed Jaeger - lots out at sea
Heermann's Gull - a few in SB harbor
California Gull - several near Channel Islands
Western Gull - lots at shore and out at sea
tern sp (Caspian?) - two near shore in channel
Arctic Tern - at least 4 at sea
Craveri's Murrelet - several flocks, 2 very close to the ship
Rock Dove - lots at SB harbor
Brown-headed Cowbird - 1 female, following in our wake several hours into the trip
American Crow - lots at SB harbor

These are not on my list, but were spotted by others on the trip:
Wilson's Storm-petrel - 1 or 2
Xantus Murrelet - a handful in Ventura Co waters, on the return
Cassin's Auklets - small flock

Mammals:
California Sea Lion - lots
Fin Whale - 2
Blue whale - at least 3
Minke Whale - 1 in channel
Pacific White-sided ("Common") Dolphin - some big pods
Pacific Bottle-nosed Dolphin - one pod near channel islands
Rizzo's Dolphin - one pod

Other:
Swordfish - 1
Ocean Sunfish - lots
Mako Shark - 1 jumping

Regards
Christine Vadai
Duvall, WA
christinevadai at sprynet.com