Alcids, Ashies, Albatross, and a Lifer Genital Slit

My second pelagic of the year out of Half Moon Bay was pleasantly birdy to begin with, but let's cut right to it...it got a lot better when we happened into a pod of motherfucking Orcas.

Orcas. One of the coolest, most interesting animals in the world? Easily. People absolutely lit up when we came upon this group, which we were able to stay with for a while.

There was much frolicking, rolling around, tail slapping, general flopping and other things I could describe more scientifically if I was a whale nerd. Isn't that a crazy pectoral fin? The massive width is a good way to identify it as a male.

The wee individual in the front was the smallest member of the pod. It was interesting to see all the different shapes and sizes of dorsal fins.

Tail slappin'.

There was one big, full-grown male in the group - I think he was the one waving his tail around above. He hung out with one other larger individual the whole time, while the rest of the pod stayed together some distance away.

We got stunning looks at these animals, easily the best in my life. The big boy came up right next to the boat...too close to crush! I can't believe I'm lucky enough to get to see stuff like this...the Blue Whales are good enough, this is just excessive.

Orca belly, complete with genital slit. His ween lives in there.

Shortly after we left the Orcas, we got on our bird of the day, this Laysan Albatross. In northern California (off Monterey, Half Moon Bay and Bodega Bay), these birds are much easier to come by in August than later in the season, and this August 19 boat hit the albajackpot. This was the first, and presumably last, I got eyes on this year.

Despite seeing a satisfactory number of them in California over the years, I've never had really great looks at them here. What's up with that? Good thing I got to pet a bunch on Midway.

I've met birders who haven't seen Sabine's Gulls before. Generally, they are not happy people. They have this vacant look, almost like they are empty inside. Not surprisingly, those with regular exposure to Sabine's Gulls are generally bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, though they are not necessarily enjoyable to be around (they are birders, after all).

No deluge of Cassin's Auklets like the previous week, though they were out there. The trick to seeing one well is to find a bird that is too full of food to attempt flying away, and too lazy to dive underwater when the boat comes near. This bird fit the bill.

This was a weird year for storm-petrels...no Blacks at all, which are not only expected up here, but they can often outnumber the other expected species (Ashy, Fork-tailed and Wilson's). Ashy Storm-Petrels did show well in August though.

Ashy Storm-Petrel putting on the brakes, right before dropping to the water to grab a miniscule morsel of food. By the way, the longevity record for ASSP is 30 years...seabirds can live heck of long lives, no matter what the size.

This has been a good year for seeing lots of Red Phalaropes offshore. This is my most adequate crush I can offer you.

This Common Tern made a close pass by the boat. In the greater bay area, it is much easier to find them 20 miles offshore than it is along the coast, though there is seemingly no shortage of good habitat (we have the Forster's Terns to prove it). It would be interesting to know where these birds are coming from...Alberta? The Northwest Territories?

Like many Common Terns, Tufted Puffins can hold dual citizenship, but this bird is likely one of the local breeders on the Farallones.

Despite how easy (relatively speaking) Tufted Puffins are to see during and immediately following their breeding season throughout their range, this is one of those birds that people just don't see very much the rest of the year. The only "off season" TUPU I've ever seen was a deceased bird that washed up in Humboldt County. Where exactly the bulk of the population winters is unknown.

Just a gannet hanging out on Sail Rock. No big deal.

Sooty Shearwaters were doing their normal afternoon thing, streaming by Pillar Point Harbor as we came back in. Another good boat trip in the books!

Vanquishing a Nemesis, Cetacean Backs, Sweet Succulent Seabirds

There are some birds I have special feelings about. Some of them I've never come close to seeing (Spoon-billed Sandpiper), some of them I've been painfully close to seeing (Ivory Gull), some of them I've seen but not well enough to count (Red-breasted Chat), some languish on my heard-only list (Black Rail), and some I've seen...just not in a particular place. As many of you know, since I have been bitching about it for years, Northern Gannet falls into the latter category. I've seen them on the east coast, but there has been one in the bay area for years now, successfully eluding my attempts to see it in three (3) different counties. What the fuck? Finally, persistence paid off...on my first pelagic trip of 2016, I saw a glowing white speck way off in the distance on the side of a cliff. It wasn't really identifiable as a bird, but I knew that I had finally met my destiny. We motored closer, and it was indeed The Bird. State birds are good birds, especially when you have been pining for them for years and dipped on them over and over again.

Of course, the only reason I was on a boat looking at a gannet in California was because I was on my first pelagic trip of the year, out of Half Moon Bay. There have been a very large number of whales off of Half Moon Bay this fall. We've had no trouble getting great looks at Humpbacks.

The lumps along the lower back are an easy way to ID a Humpback. This one has a more pronounced dorsal fin than many.

Along with all the Blue and Humpback Whales, there have also been Fin Whales! Fin Whales are relatively rare in the area (I've never seen one here before this year). They are similar to Blue Whales in size and shape, but are solid gray and have a more pronounced dorsal fin. They also move extremely fast.

When there are lots of krill-eating whales offshore, they are typically accompanied by Cassin's Auklets. There were hundreds of these diminutive alcids on this day, more than I'd seen in a few years. In classic embarrassing form, a good number were too full to fly away from the boat.

We had a pair of Craveri's Murrelets next to the boat, but frustratingly I was looking at a jaeger overhead at the time and totally missed them. Even more frustratingly, I saw what was probably another one but got unsatisfactory looks. I've seen them a couple times before, but you know what? That is not enough. Need more murrelets. At least this Scripps's Murrelet was cooperative...they seem to be doing well where they breed down in the Channel Islands, so hopefully this species will be increasingly easy to see on pelagic trips.

While reviewing photos for this blog post, I came across this shearwater that at the time I just passed off as a Sooty. I only took photos of it because it was close to the boat. Funny...it doesn't look like a Sooty now...

The bird has a very small bill, whitish throat, round head, and underwing pattern that does not match Sooty. A couple knowledgeable Bird Policemen and I came to the consensus of Short-tailed Shearwater, which is an excellent bird for August; they typically do not arrive until the beginning of October, and are generally hard to find even then. I'm not the biggest proponent of birders becoming photographers (not that there is anything wrong with that, obviously) - I recommend getting a scope before a camera - but having a decent crusher can pay huge dividends on pelagic trips.

Whales were not the only marine mammals in abundance. It is always a pleasure to meet up with a pod of Pacific White-sided Dolphins.

This sea lion looking thing is actually a Northern Right Whale-Dolphin. Most people have never heard of such a thing, so if you were one of those people a few seconds ago, now you are not. NRWDs are uncommon and typically travel with large pods of other dolphins. They are mostly black and have no dorsal fin at all...they are very easy to identify but adept at not allowing themselves to be photographed well, even though they will bowride.

When you hear the phrase "birding is hard", one of the very first things that comes to mind should be jaegers. Take these birds for example. When we saw this pursuit, another leader and I agreed that the bird with a fish was a Parasitic and the other bird was a Long-tailed. What we didn't realize (which I do now, checking photos) was that the bird with the fish had just flown over the boat a minute before, and at that point we called it a Long-tailed. Balls! Looking at my photos, I am not completely satisfied with either ID...the confusing bird does not look particularly large in comparison, but the bill does not look particularly small and the back seems quite dark...but there is still some contrast in the secondaries...maybe it would have a lighter upperwing if it was older...ugh.

This bird, the pursuer in the above photo, was not hard to ID. This immature Long-tailed Jaeger has the completely dark underwings of an adult, which Pomarine and Parasitic would never show. It's a particularly shitty photo, I know, but it gets the field mark across.

The other bird still retained the underwing of a more youthful bird. Here it is being whimsical.

No obvious white flash on the upperwing of this bird. Only three primary shafts were white, which is typically a very helpful mark for Long-tailed Jaeger, though they can occasionally have more. If I have to choose and call this bird something it would be Long-tailed, though I do not do it with great conviction or courage.

You know, when someone in a guide or leader position misidentifies a bird in the field, it often causes raised eyebrows, or if it happens repeatedly, feverish gossip. This is not so with jaegers...if someone misses a call, we all move on. No biggie. They are the great equalizer, and a group of birds that I would really like to know better.

While the experience of watching jaegers at sea lies somewhere in between maddening and great fun, watching Black-footed Albatross is always warm and comforting. Watching folks absolutely light up when they see them for the first time doesn't get old.

Brown Booby was a solid bonus rarity. Unlike last year, when they seemed to be everywhere, they have been few and far between in 2016. This boob must have been stoked to find such an excellent drum to perch on.

Mmmmm...Sabine's Gulls. Almost everyone who has not yet seen an Ivory or Ross's Gull will usually pick this bird as their favorite (also, favourite) gull, and I am not in any position to throw shade on this pick. I feel very fortunate to see them every fall.

Sabine's Gulls are heartening...nay, delightful to see in and of themselves, but generally speaking the more Sabine's you see the more terns, phalaropes and jaegers are around. If you are seeing a lot Sabine's on a particular day, chances are there will be a lot of other good seabirds around.

There is generally not a big audio component to pelagic trips other than leaders screaming about birds we are spotting. The one major exception to this rule is Common Murre; we hear lots of murre dads bellowing to their chicks, and lots of murre chicks pitifully peeping at their dads. This is a typical murre dad letting loose with a loving bellow.

Boat Season Has Arrived

When August arrives, birders across the continent have one thing on their obsessive brains: shorebirds.  This Global Birder Ranking System #7 U.S. birder?  Two things...shorebirds, and seabirds.  Oh, and another thing, pointing and screaming bird names as loud as possible with a captive audience.

Of course, there are always seabirds Out There, but the end of July heralds the beginning of pelagic season.  Away from Monterey Bay and Half Moon Bay, there is no where else on the west coast where boats depart on the regular to troll for tubenoses, for alcids, for boobies, for jaegers...you get the picture.  I am lucky enough to be able to get on a lot of these trips (mostly out of Half Moon), and spend time with this impressive and difficult group of birds...the birds of The Deep. In anticipation of my first west coast seabirding trip of the year (and yet another shot at Hawaiian Petrel, a bird I need), I thought I would cobble together some photos from past July and August trips. As always, if you are thinking about doing your first west coast pelagic trip, or your first ever pelagic trip, what are you waiting for? Get on a boat!

But these anxious feelings are nothing different from any other year.  What is different about this year is El Nino...not a speculated one, not a possible one, but a real one.  The nonbirder associates El Nino (sorry for the lack of tilde) with rain, the west coast seabirder associates it with rare birds. Weird seabirds have already put in appearances in California this year...a Red-footed Booby, a Nazca Booby, a Kelp Gull, a Bridled Tern...and none of those birds were even seen out to sea!  So who knows what will be out there?  Frigatebirds have already been showing up in SoCal, another encouraging sign.  Fingers crossed for Cook's Petrels, an El Nino special, but I will be happy with a Hawaiian (no fucked up ocean currents required), which is very much a bird of August.

Late summer is a good time for albatross, and Black-footed Albatross are almost always out there this time of year.  Unlike many other seabirds we see, if you see a Black-footed Albatross, you are going to get great looks.  It's also a good time for Laysan Albatross (top photo) as well, but a word of warning: 75% of Laysan Albatross called out on boat trips end up being Western Gulls.  Don't become part of that gruesome statistic...caution is warranted.  

Shearwater diversity does not tend to be very high at the beginning of pelagic season, but Sooty and Pink-footed are never missed, assuming the boat gets out of the harbor.  An early Buller's or Flesh-footed is never out of the question, and of course there are a great many other possibilities.

Small numbers of Northern Fulmars are often found on these summer trips, and the birds usually look something like this. They are ragged. They are haggard...and lets face it, they are godawful. Hideous. It's amazing they can even fly, they are molting so hard. Fulmars later in fall are very respectable in appearance and flight capabilities, not so much our summer lingerers. Luckily, if you've never seen a fulmar before, they are not at all afraid of the boat, so you can wonder at their horrible glory from close range.

August is a great month for jaegers, especially Long-tailed, who often will still be retaining their brilliant extendo-tail. The bulk of southbound Long-taileds seem to pass through from August to mid-September, so now is a good time to get them. The always-popular Skua Slam is always within reach this time of year as well.

Black (above) and Ashy Storm-Petrels are the expected storm-petrels early in the season, though Wilson's are not unusual. With El Nino brewing, this could be a good year to find Least Storm-Petrel this far north, though probably not this early. That said, the birding legend they call Papa Echo Lima recently saw some from shore down La Jolla way, which portends great things for those who want to see them up here.

Fact: 75% of Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels claimed on trips are actually phalaropes...but if you are one who warrants caution, then that 75% is not for you. These are Red Phalaropes, the less common, chubbier, more desirable phalarope.

Speaking of chubby, Cassin's Auklets are expected on trips throughout the summer and fall, though their numbers vary.  Unlike albatross and fulmars, Cassin's Auklets hate boats, so getting good looks at them can be stressful.

I know this isn't a compelling photo, but I think it sums up what looking at murrelets can be like over the deep.  Scripps's Murrelets (above) are the expected species, though last summer Craveri's were seen on a number of boats in July and early August. I'm hoping they come back for an encore this year.

Oh yeah, crippling rarities can show up any time...it just takes a shitload of luck, and maximizing your time on the water. This Salvin's Albatross was the star Vague Runt (albeit one not so runty) of the pelagic season last year, and things have never been the same.

All photos were taken offshore from Bodega Bay and Half Moon Bay.

MEGAGREAT SHEARWATER and Other Half Moon Highlights

Just brutal. BB&B is getting really bogged down and backed up...too many pelagic trips! So much chimping remains to be done. I like that I haven't posted a photo of a passerine in weeks, other than the controversial Nutmeg Mannikin (which has been added to the ABA Checklist, as I prophesied).

So after a fairly slow outing out of Monterey, I led 2 more Shearwater Journeys trips out of Half Moon Bay early in the month. On September 8, we pulled off the incredible feat of relocating the Great Shearwater that Alvaro Jamarillo's trip had found the day before. This is a MEGA in California, with currently only 8 accepted records by the Bird Police. Of course, since it is such a good bird, my photos of it were atrocious, but at least I got much better ones less than a month before in North Carolina.

The bird made a single pass up the port side of the boat and then disappeared...it was not part of any feeding flock or raft of birds, so I think it was plain old amazing luck that we were able to find it again, less than a mile from where the bird was seen the previous day.

One of my best California birds this year, without a doubt. We did another trip out there the day after seeing this bird, but could not relocate it. It's a big ocean out there. It still astounds me that the bird paid us a visit...chasing pelagic vagrants successfully is not something to be taken lightly.

It was a good weekend for Scripps's Murrelets. A big body of warm water was reachable on those days, which the murrelets love. Sadly, no Craveri's or Guadalupe Murrelets accompanied them.

Interestingly, at least half the time I've seen these birds on northern California trips, they are spotted off the bow flying directly away from the boats, unnervingly not revealing any field marks except their back color and flight style. They look a lot like Cassin's Auklets when they do this (which is surely their intended way to thwart birders), and I bet many SCMU get missed this way.

Buller's Shearwater are beloved. It is the bird on a pelagic trip that leaders will call out again and again and again, no matter how many have been seen already. I had no idea they had two-tone pink and gray feet until I looked closely at this photo...it's a nice touch.

Although the big dark "M" across the upperwing is the default ID mark for these birds, I find their gleaming white underwing and underparts to be even more useful to spot these birds at a glance.

Here is the iconic back pattern.

Cassin's and Rhinoceros Auklets are similar at first glance, particularly when you see a distant bird on the water and have no way to gauge its size. The comparatively small bill of a Cassin's isn't always obvious, but it's a great field mark besides the overall diminutive size. The differences in head shape (rounded on Cassin's, flat and blocky on Rhino) are also reliable.

Young Rhino Auklets (right) lack the white brows and whiskers of adults, giving them the chance to be confused with both Cassin's Auklets and juvenile Tufted Puffins.

Pacific White-sided Dolphins are frequently found on boats out of Half Moon Bay, Monterey and Bodega Bay. We had an enormous pod this day, with lots of shearwaters fishing with them. Even the most cold-hearted, diehard lister should be happy to run into dolphins on pelagic trips, because they usually have a lot of birds with them.

Of course, Pacific White-throated Dolphin or Pacific Gray-sided Dolphin would be a better names, but I don't think mammalogists are as prone to tinkering with names as bird folk are. Very cool and distinctive animals, regardless of humanity's poor descriptions. They are more than happy to come visit boats, and occasionally have Northern Right Whale Dolphins tagging along with them.

It's been a good fall for Humpback Whales. We've seen hella. Brilliant creatures. Much more pelagic coverage to come soon.