Sunday August 15, 2010

Below are three summaries of different portions of the August 15 Monterey Seabirds trip. The first report covers the initial inshore leg, the second covers Monterey County waters, and the third is for Santa Cruz waters. These summaries were adapted from reports by Don Roberson on eBird. The original reports were generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org).

Location: Monterey Bay pelagic – inshore Monterey Harbor to Pt. Pinos (Monterey County)
Observation date: 8/15/10
Notes: Initial leg of Monterey Seabirds trip aboard 'Pt. Sur Clipper,' with Richard Ternullo, skipper; Roger Wolfe, Todd Easterla, Tim Amaral, Matthew Dodder, Bruce Elliott; Jeff Polken, Bill Bousman, and others. Cold & overcast day; fairly calm early but wind picking up by mid-morning to Bft 4-5; patches of sun by afternoon. Route was out to Pt. Pinos, then SW to 8 nmi W of Cypress (wind came up; see separate checklist for all pelagics >1 nmi offshore in Monterey County) then NW to mid-Bay (14 nmi NW to Pt. Pinos) and into SCZ waters (see that checklist) then east to N rim of canyon, east toward Moss Landing, and return across middle to Bay.
Number of species:			13
	Surf Scoter		3
	Brown Pelican		3
	Brandt's Cormorant		50
	Pelagic Cormorant		5
	Black Turnstone		2
	Red-necked Phalarope		2
	Heermann's Gull		2
	Western Gull		150
	California Gull		50
	Elegant Tern		3
	Common Murre		5
	Pigeon Guillemot		3
	Rock Pigeon		10
Location: Monterey Bay pelagic (Monterey County)
Observation date: 8/15/10
Notes: See Inshore Notes above for initial leg of trip. Monterey Seabirds trip aboard 'Pt. Sur Clipper,' with Richard Ternullo, skipper; Roger Wolfe, Todd Easterla, Tim Amaral, Matthew Dodder, Bruce Elliott; Jeff Polken, Bill Bousman, etc. Cold & overcast day; fairly calm early but wind picking up by mid-morning to Bft 4-5; patches of sun by afternoon. Route was out to Pt. Pinos, then SW to 8 nmi W of Cypress (wind came up) then NW to mid-Bay (14 nmi NW to Pt. Pinos) and into SCZ waters (see Santa Cruz County checklist below) then east to N rim of canyon, east toward Moss Landing, and return across middle to Bay. Lots of Humpback Whales (25) plus big pods of Northern Right Whale Dolphin, with small numbers Pacific White-sided & Risso's Dolphin.
Number of species:			16
	Black-footed Albatross		75		up to 25 sitting around boat at once
	Pink-footed Shearwater		500
	Sooty Shearwater		5000
	Brown Pelican		8		scattered out to 8 nmi offshore
	peep sp.		2		probably Leasts -- being chased by LT Jaegers
	Red-necked Phalarope		25
	Red Phalarope		5
	Sabine's Gull		3
	Heermann's Gull		10
	Western Gull		1000
	California Gull		2000
	Elegant Tern		12
	Parasitic Jaeger		1		subadult; others have nice photos
	Long-tailed Jaeger		3		subadults flying high together, then chasing two peeps behind boat; ~7 nmi SW of Pt. Pinos
	jaeger sp.		1		~2 nmi offshore, a Pom/Parasitic type
	Common Murre		50		mostly father-juv 'pairs'
	Cassin's Auklet		50		consistent with lots of krill in Bay
	Rhinoceros Auklet		6
Location: Monterey Bay pelagic (Santa Cruz County)
Observation date: 8/15/10
Notes: See Inshore Notes above for initial leg of trip. Monterey Seabirds trip aboard 'Pt. Sur Clipper,' with Richard Ternullo, skipper; Roger Wolfe, Todd Easterla, Tim Amaral, Matthew Dodder, Bruce Elliott; Jeff Polken, Bill Bousman, etc. Cold & overcast day; fairly calm early but wind picking up by mid-morning to Bft 4-5; patches of sun by afternoon. Route was out to Pt. Pinos, then SW to 8 nmi W of Cypress (wind came up; see separate checklist for MTY waters above) then NW to mid-Bay (14 nmi NW to Pt. Pinos) and into SCZ waters (this checklist for 1.75 hr) then east to N rim of canyon, east toward Moss Landing, and return across middle to Bay. Big flocks of SOSH sitting on water in SCZ along N rim of Canyon.
Number of species:			15
	Black-footed Albatross		25
	Northern Fulmar		3
	Pink-footed Shearwater		150
	Sooty Shearwater		8000		huge flocks sitting on water at mid-day; hard to estimate. Bill Bousman's conservative estimate for SCZ side was 5000. I feel that was low. There was one briefly-seen partial albino among them.
	Red-necked Phalarope		15
	Red Phalarope		7
	Sabine's Gull		8
	Western Gull		300
	California Gull		500
	South Polar Skua		1		distant
	Pomarine Jaeger		2		1 ad with full tail; 1 dark morph subadult (phs)
	Parasitic Jaeger		2
	Common Murre		20
	Xantus's Murrelet (scrippsi)		1		briefly seen in flight; picked out ahead of boat by R. Ternullo & R. Wolfe; small thin black-and-white alcid in flight, consistent with the size/shape/pattern with which I am familiar. Water temps are good for them this August.
	Cassin's Auklet		25		lots of krill so lots of CAAU today

Don Roberson and Roger Wolfe for Monterey Seabirds