Sunday, August 31, 2014

Half Moon Bay, 8/17 and 8/23


Sooty Shearwater. Angular.

Some coverage today from the August 17 and August 23 pelagic trips with Shearwater Journeys out of Half Moon Bay, CA. My next boat will be on September 7, with This Machine Nate, Laurence of Arizona, and Flycatcher Jen. I have never been on a boat with so many bird bloggers...the tremendous weight of our combined nerd-strength could sink us before we get out of the harbor. Hopefully they will get some lifers...I believe this will be Laurence's first pelagic, so I expect he will be flipping out and spewing puns for the duration. As for me, September 7 is still within the Hawaiian Petrel window, so that is my target bird...don't worry, I'll be looking for White-chinned and Great-winged too, but I am a humble birder. Warm water conditions persist in much of the eastern Pacific, and there are a lot of Sulids in the area right now, so you never know what we might find.

As I compose this post, I am impressively ill. I mean, no one is going to be doing any ice bucket bullshit for me, but existence is rather unpleasant at the moment. So for today I will cut the loquacious crap, and each photo is going to get exactly one word to accompany the species.


Rhinoceros Auklets. Gloomy.

Tufted Puffin. Inspecting.


South Polar Skua. Skippy.


Broad.


Black-footed Albatross. Hello.



Majestic.


Brakes.


Common Tern. Wedged.


Articesque.


California Gull. Cinnamon.


Edgings.


Pink-footed Shearwater, with Western Gulls. Disparate.


Harried.


Pomarine Jaeger. Pomatorhine.


Dauntless.



Pacific Loon. Fresh.


Steller's and California Sea Lions. Blondes.


Steller's Sea Lion. Sneers.

4 comments:

  1. If spewing puns is the worst of it, many the person in close proximity will be getting off easy.

    Looking forward to this trip quite tremendously--nice primer here.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just located my flashcards. We missed skua last year, so I will require at least one of those. Where can I find a garment that repels both puke AND puns?

    ReplyDelete

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