Sunday August 30, 2009
As my carpool approached Sand City I sarcastically said to Ken Peterson
and Jeff Poklen, " Looks like good conditions." Kenneth looked at
me like I was nuts. Fact was we couldn't even see the bay so thick
was the fog. "I don't mind the fog, what I really hate is when it
is windy AND foggy. That is just wrong," I added.
Throw in a good 8-10 foot swell to go with it and that was our weather
for Aug. 30. Skipper Richard Ternullo described it to the other skippers
over the radio as "NFG". A bit unusual for August.
When Richard gave our lat and long numbers to the other boats on the
bay all of them asked the same question. "What the heck are you doing
out there?"
"Birding," he replied, enough said.
Given the conditions with a strong 15-25 knot WNW winds we headed
straight for Soquel Canyon and the lee of the Santa Cruz mountains.
From there Richard made a valiant effort to get us out to the mouth
of the Monterey Bay. We got right up to the edge of the whitecaps
traveling at 4 knots into the wind. Beaufort 4 plus.
All of the regulars and spotters knew that this location with this
weather was prime for seeing a pterdroma and we all were present and
focused on the moment at hand. I've never seen Sooty Shearwaters arc
that high before. It was midday but none of us was tempted by lunch,
lest we miss something. We worked it hard but after an hour of crabbing
into the wind we had nothing to show for it but the thrill of trying
. We turned around to get the wind at our back to the relief of those
hanging over the rail. It was a tough day on the sea.
Much
of the first part of the day visibility was very limited but it did
clear out just before midday. We sorted through numerous flocks of
SOOTY SHEARWATERS sitting on the water. Usually we find other
shearwater species in with them but not today. In fact we did not
even find a PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER until mid-day and we only
saw a handful of BULLER'S SHEARWATERS.
At 12:30 p.m. we started seeing quite a few BLACK STORM-PETRELS
so we laid a cod liver oil slick and sat on it for a while. Soon ASHY
STORM-PETRELS started appearing too and once again the slick attracted
quite a few LONG-TAILED JAEGERS but not in the same numbers
as the last two weeks. But once again the trip was a jaeger study
tour with a SOUTH POLAR SKUA making for the slam.
Shortly after returning to Monterey County (see map
for the day with county lines included below) Tim Amaral spotted
a WILSON'S STORM-PETREL that passed very close to the boat
so everyone could see.
The other trip highlight was the HUMPBACK WHALE that breached twice
right in front of us.
Other marine mammals:
Sea Otter
California Sea Lion
Harbor Seal
Pacific White-sided Dolphin
Risso's Dolphin
Species list: Monterey / Santa Cruz Counties
| |
Surf Scoter |
|
1/0 |
| |
Pacific Loon |
|
3/0 |
| |
Black-footed Albatross |
|
20/15 |
| |
Northern Fulmar |
|
9/7 |
| |
Pink-footed Shearwater |
|
25/15 |
| |
Buller's Shearwater |
|
3/1 |
| |
Sooty Shearwater |
|
2000/750 |
| |
Wilson's Storm-Petrel |
|
1/0 |
| |
Ashy Storm-Petrel |
|
9/7 |
| |
Black Storm-Petrel |
|
3/9 |
| |
Brown Pelican |
|
5/0 |
| |
Brandt's Cormorant |
|
25/0 |
| |
Red-necked Phalarope |
|
30/27 |
| |
Red Phalarope |
|
3/0 |
| |
Sabine's Gull |
|
12/15 |
| |
Heermann's Gull |
|
45/20 |
| |
Western Gull |
|
100/30 |
| |
California Gull |
|
90/15 |
| |
Common Tern |
|
1/1 |
| |
South Polar Skua |
|
1/0 |
| |
Pomarine Jaeger |
|
12/14 |
| |
Parasitic Jaeger |
|
7/3 |
| |
Long-tailed Jaeger |
|
46/38 |
| |
jaeger sp. |
|
10/5 |
| |
Common Murre |
|
50/75 |
| |
Pigeon Guillemot |
|
4/0 |
| |
Cassin's Auklet |
|
15/13 |
| |
Rhinoceros Auklet |
|
20/20 |
 |
 |
See the Google
Earth image showing locations of points along the track (opens
in new window). |
See Jeff Poklen's photo gallery of this trip at: www.pbase.com/jpkln/gallery/30aug2009
Roger Wolfe for Monterey
Seabirds
