Cardigan Bay by Sea (5th July, 2013)

I didn't imagine that I'd get on a boat any time during my stay here, since pelagics tend to be quite booked up in advance and not many places in the UK offer them to begin with. Yet, that prediction was quite false. The Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre offered survey trips for Cetacea out in Cardigan Bay. Originally I wasn't really enthusiastic since I sought volunteer work and experience rather than sitting in the sidelines, though in the end the former was also achieved.

There was a 8-hour survey trip for the "determined" people. Though some people on the boat were the sort of people that wanted guaranteed sightings of dolphins and nothing more, but its probably unfair to judge that. I still sought a few birds, namely kittiwake, puffin and manx shearwater which occurred off shore. I was informed that it was a possibility to see any or all of those birds, but it was by no means guaranteed. I was also told it went quite a bit off-shore into fairly deep water so that was also promising.

As we drove into New Quay I found a pale tussock moth on the window of a cafe (yes, while the car was in motion). As soon as the car parked I rushed off down the road to relocate it. It was indeed a pale tussock moth, and not a species I had seen before though they are supposedly fairly common.

Their caterpillars are quite often seen though.

The boat left at around 9am and there were bottlenose dolphins in the harbour before anyone even got on the boat.  It was not the closest of encounters and though it would be amusing to think that some people regretted spending money on an 8 hour trip for them when they were just here, I imagine it only inspired them to stay on board. The captain struggled to get in the health and safety lecture as people were far too absorbed with other things.

A few cormorants lingered in the waters here, but they would undoubtedly be replaced later on by shags, or at least I thought so. Alcids started making appearances. You could just about make out some of them from shore if you squinted hard, but out here they were hard to miss. Both razorbill and guillemot were present.

Within only minutes of the harbour was this funny gull called a kittiwake. (It turns out that some of the shots I took of gulls well off-shore a few days ago were kittiwake, but at the time I could not see enough details in the photos to confirm the ID then). 

Some of you may be wondering "What? It's just a seagull. What's the difference?".
It is the only small gull (i.e. black-headed gull) with a white head. Its the only
UK gull with a short all yellow-bill. And its the only gull that has these two
features along with black legs and a wingtip dipped in black without
any white spots.

Nearly all the gulls out here were kittiwake, save the odd herring or great black-backed. Alcids continued, and the manx shearwaters were soon all over the place. A "possibility", they said. They were flying everywhere. (In a similar fashion to the kittiwake, I had images of one shearwater in my multiple "photograph dark specks far out to sea on the horizon and pray you can identify them" shots from up on the cliffs a few days ago, so this is not my first sighting of the bird).

Eh. I have better pictures. You'll see them later.

Not many minutes after that a dark bird flew across the front of the boat, and that was an Atlantic puffin. Apparently no one else was aware of it, since the survey team (the people who wrote down sightings) gave a confused look and demanded to see photos as proof. After that I was uncertain how much I could trust the completeness of the sightings they wrote down, but to be fair birds were not the main focus of their surveys.

From afar its easy to mistake them for razor/mot.

So far this blog is looking rushed. There is a flurry of photos, information about where they were found on the trip, and without the (meaningless) backstory/story I tend to compose in blogs. But it was true that these birds came very fast. I don't think I have had that rate of new birds/minute before. If you payed attention earlier on you would have noticed that I had seen all my target birds within half an hour of leaving the shore, which I must say was quite impressive. And by noting how I had not included a backstory/story, I have. There.

Since there was a long long time of nothing but two things beginning with "s", I'm going to skip between encounters that should have photos included. First up is this gannet, one of many, but it was very close to the boat.

Close gannet is close.

Next up was this European storm-petrel  Well I say this storm-petrel, but I have no photos so you'll have to imagine it instead. (Hint: Its small, and dark.   AKA almost impossible to see when the water isn't perfectly smooth because the reflections of the wave are also dark and it blends in)

In fact I didn't even see the bird. I considered the possibility of a storm-petrel, and after about an hour of scanning the sea I just kind of sat down and waited for the next exciting event to happen. The "expert birder" on board just casually said, "Oh, there was a storm-petrel about 30 seconds ago." about 30 seconds too late and no one else ended up seeing it. Again, since birds were not the focus I suppose all can be forgiven, but still. There were a lot of jellyfish, mostly moon, across the passage.

But I did manage to find another one. The water was thankfully calm, so there was no need to strain one's eyes trying to pick out a small dark bird that was most likely very far away from the boat. A bit late though cause I already had spent the past hour (plus the past past hour) searching until my eyes were sore. But at least now I could finally sit down and stop scanning. It was highly highly unlikely there would be any other seabird to locate here, since Ireland blocked the open sea (and with it any super rare mega birds).

I quite nearly missed it, since I was looking for a tiny dark bird and this bird looked
a bit too big. I can't remember what made me change my mind, but I'm glad I did.
You can see the white rump and short bill in this image.

Since there was nothing of interest between this point and the next 3 hours except the giant bomber plane I will skip to the next point. Giant bomber plane? Oh yeah, that. Supposedly they do missile testing around the coastline here, and this giant bomber plane was the only visual evidence we saw of it. The captain told of stories when they were out and sea and the missiles would fly over the boat.

Ok, even I'm not that clueless. It probably isn't a bomber plane, but it sounds
dramatic so let's go with that.
PS: its a RAF Hercules C-130J, thanks Ryan.

Right, now I can commence the 3 hour skip. The out-to-sea part of the trip was now over, so the boat passed along the immediate coastline now. Cardigan Island had a lot of life resting on its shores, ranging from grey seals to shags. The boat also passed by Bird Rock, a location where a mini-rookery of Alcids can be seen. A pair of shelducks with ducklings in tow was not exactly expected here at sea. It was almost comical how the captain said "There's a duck with ducklings over there."  The rest of the journey was back across the coastline, past Llangrannog, and back.  A few pictures from here:

There aren't too many places where you can be in close
proximity to shags.

Grey seal.

Shelduck with shelducklings...or something.

I only recently (as of this posting, about 20 days after the actual
boat trip) learned how to disable mirror lock-up on my camera.
If I knew that at the time I'd have more photos that looked like the above.
Mirror lock up means it only takes one photo when the shutter is held down,
as opposed to many.

Bird rock rookery.

Pomarine skua off Llangrannog! A hard bird to find in the UK, though
apparently a few individuals are regular in the summer off the west.
The birder on board said it was an Arctic skua, but the differences
are clearly seen in the above image.

And that commences the Cardigan Bay trip report.

April 27th Ventura pelagic

27th April, 2013                                                    

A pelagic trip was scheduled today and it was no small ferry outing at longer than 12 hours. It required me to get up at 5:30am to leave harbour at 7am. We returned at 8:11pm. It was nothing compared to the pitiful 7-9 hours of previous trips I had joined.

Sunrise over Ventura harbour.

The two colours of a perfect sunrise, orange and black, lit up the harbour. A caspian tern pair were borderline interesting, and a species I don't see super often.

Caspian tern (from an earlier trip).

A little out a single Clark's Grebe accompanied a single Western Grebe. The rather limited beach held willet, grey plover, black oystercatcher and an American crow partaking in a bit of beach scavenging. Bottlenose dolphin made a brief presence in the small bay area.

Common murre soon became regular as the coastline was left in our wake. I had no doubt seen this species under the name guillemot in England several years ago, though I've never recorded it before. The lighting was not too great though. Scripp's murrelet and Cassin's auklet indulged us with erratic distant appearances. Cassin's in particular are challenging to find in the open sea, as a dark speck literally "the size of a tennis ball".

Bad lighting, bad...

PENGUINS. No, not really. Scripp's Murrelet.

The freshwater Black Tern seemed an oddity this far out to sea, but we encountered 4 in total on floating kelp patches. Rhinoceros Auklet started appearing too, though they weren't a big deal for me since I'd seen them much closer before.  Humpback whales appeared in enough numbers to please a whale-watching trip.

No points for guessing why its called a Humpback Whale.

The ashy storm-petrels appeared soon enough, though scattered again. A fork-tailed storm-petrel was called out by two people who saw it "fly right past the boat", and I was not one of them. It was not helpful that I was standing next to the person who saw it, while looking in the same direction! Bonaparte's gulls populated the empty space often held by western and Heerman's gull closer to shore, and the odd Sabine's Gull started appearing here and there. These gulls use the same colors scheme as all the other gulls but manage to look much more flashy.

Few on board were particularly interested in the white-sided dolphins that passed by. Usually the announcer calls out mammals even if there is minimal interest, but not for these ones. I'm lucky I was standing on the right side of the boat for them. They weren't too easy to find in the rough waters here, but the undulating seas made them more conspicuous than usual when they did breach.

Pacific White-sided Dolphin

The target birds were albatrosses, the charismatic gliders that people often associate with the open ocean. The name translates to white wanderer, and how funny is it that my first albatross is infact not white at all. The black-footed albatross came in a pair and made an effort to approach the boat for the bait that was being thrown out to attract them. It is thought that the smell of these birds is quite good--when you are looking for food out in the desolate ocean there certainly is little chance of using even the best eyesight to spot the nearest food several miles away.

Chocolatetross.

Even though it has black feet, you'd think it would be named after something more obvious. Like, perhaps, the entire
colouration of the bird which clearly differs from the usual white species.

Each albatross has its own unique facial expression when viewed head on. Most of them look angry though.

The second albatross species was the Laysan albatross, and a more typical looking member of the group. It is rarer in California waters.

The rest of the trip was remarkably quiet... But I must say nothing was quite as complete without the cupcake-shaped sunset.

Año Nuevo State Reserve (15th)

                                Año Nuevo Coastline
         
The reason for finding this reserve was because there were supposedly quite a few Elephant seals here, which was something that my mother was especially keen on seeing (though I think the sealions off the pier were enough to last her a few years).

This reserve was nearing Coastal Redwood territory, and would become a welcome change of scenery. Redwoods always remind me of Banana slugs, a peculiar slug that is bright yellow when young, but gains dark brown spots when it grows older in a pattern exactly like ripening bananas.

We made a stop at a rocky beach along the journey and it was certainly worth a look. In the surf just metres from the beach were (fittingly) a group of Surf Scoters. These remarkable ducks with extravagant bills really are something to see. It was not even comparable to the pin-prick sized flock I had previously seen, and even that is pushing it considering I could only just make them out by uploading the images on the PC and pushing the zoom as much as I could.



Due to the height and intensity of the waves about every other image looked like this.
You can't even see the other 3 female-type birds in this image.

 Also of interest was this long-awaited Caspian Tern. I assumed it was a Royal until I saw the images (I really need to check things more carefully...) where the scarlet-red and well-sized bill was more obvious. Caspians are amongst the largest of the terns, and naturally are one of the "Greater" terns. Many of the more well-known dainty species(genus Sterna for example) are typically less than half the size of these monster terns; if that isn't enough then all you have to do is compare the size of the bird to the Mallards behind it (and don't ask what these run-of-the-mill ducks are doing by a harsh rocky coastline with strong waves; they seem to get everywhere...).

Now that I had covered the interesting birds I had time to have a look at the area. The beach was mostly Whimbrel-dominated with a single Long-billed Curlew (not pictured, but I found it in one of my other images) which I wish I had known about at the time.

And surprise surprise another Mallard can be seen in this photo. Can you find it?



One of a few pale and probable Glaucous-winged Gulls.


                                Año Nuevo State Reserve
The atmosphere of the car park and visitor centre was comprised of a passerine song. The source, perched on the tip of a pine tree was a male Purple Finch. I have previously only seen two Purple Finches, but both were females.

 

About as purple as the red on a Reddish Egret. Was once eloquently put as "a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice" which is far more fitting.
  


A few swallows had appeared over the fields just by the car park. One happened to fly low and I saw a bright green; my nemesis and long-wanted hirundine; Violet-green Swallows. They only hung around for a matter of seconds, and it wasn't enough to get focused images, but the distinctive upper pattern was still visible in my images.

Someway down the path was a hole, and unlike the many other holes this one actually had something in it, despite my presence within a metre away. It was a...whatever it is. A pocket-gopher or something like that....Rodents are not one of  my areas simply because I have never found a resource.

Some pretty purple wildflower.

 On the way back I had some closer Swallows for better pictures, however these birds were brown on the back and had a brown smudge down the throat. My other nemesis hirundine; the Northern Rough-winged Swallow.

                                On the way back

American White Pelicans.

The Bicoloured subspecies of the Red-winged Blackbird is only found in northern California; it is not
something found in Los Angeles.

Santa Cruz (14th)

Santa Cruz

_______________________________________________________________________

 

The next outing was up north to an area called Santa Cruz, yet at a distance of several hundred miles this was no casual road trip. My parents were attracted to the location due to an interest in the film Lost Boys which was filmed here. Unlike the dry chaparral desertiness of Agoura, Santa Cruz was in a more lush hilly environment which could be seen long before entering the region itself.                                                                

 

Farms, ranches and orchards were commonplace in this area.

       I only really had one goal for this trip, and that was to see a Yellow-billed Magpie. Once a bird that numbered in the thousands, the population of this special corvid has dropped considerably. I hear they even used to be found in Agoura, but now the furthest south they lie is many hours north of here. Santa Cruz is part of their range, and they are apparently surprisingly common in the right place. I mistakenly assumed they were just as urban as the European and Black-billed Magpies, but I couldn't have been more wrong; they were quite picky and only inhabited the right kind of oak woodland. No wonder I couldn't find any in the town of Santa Cruz.

 

Naturally there were quite a few gulls in Santa Cruz. Now that spring had arrived I assumed the winter gulls would start migrating north. In Los Angeles they would be scarce, but the further up the coast you go the better the chance of seeing the last few stragglers. I had various pale gulls that could have fit Glaucous-winged (or Olympic). Glaucous-winged is a nice bird that I could not get enough of (even though I had only seen one before coming here) but I was still hoping that maybe I could find a Thayer's.

 

The most promising bird of the day. For Glaucous-winged that is.

 

Tommorow I planned to get up early for a walk down the pier for some seawatching. The pier went right out into the sea so there was a chance of something interesting (here's hoping).

Condor Cruises (Santa Barbara/Ventura County) 17th September

Most people don't expect the amount of birdlife that can be found far out to sea. There are in fact a wide variety of species of terns, petrels, auklets, guillemots, puffins, gannets, albatrosses, and all sorts. Of course that isn't all you've got to see. You can't forget all the whales, dolphins, seals and other interesting sea creatures you would never expect to see in your life.

One of the most important things noted on this trip was the correct pronunciation of "pelagic", which was neither p-la-jic or p-lay-jic, but p-lar-jic. With a camera as short as mine you can't help but worry that those specks on the horizon will be no more than that in the pictures. Yet, hearing the stories of the great rarities flying over the boat at no more than mast height, and the skuas flying right off the stern,  I quickly forgot about that.

And yes, boat terminology. It is one of those things people always forget unless their father is a sailor. It was infrequently used in the trip, but you could still come home remembering it simply because you wanted to know it just in case the guy on the PA decided to pass it over to someone that thought starboard sounded better than 9'oclock or right side. Those crucial seconds between figuring out the direction could mean the difference between missing it and seeing it. But of course it was nothing like that. Not a lot anyway. Occasionally the boat terminology was used, and there were always the odd people pointing the binos in the wrong direction. At the same time the guy on the PA also mixed up left and right a few times.
"Sorry, that's left." Was not an infrequent message, similarly was "That would be Common Loon, that's why Matt is my mammal guy and not my bird guy!"

So at 7:30am there I was on the dock. A Great Blue Heron was perched right by the dock on a boat. One of tour guides by the name of Wes approached me and scratched his head. "You got a jacket?" 

As it happened I didn't. I did, but it was not here. My parents convinced me I would not need one on the sunny seas of California.

"Well if this is your first time...you're going to regret it. The boat runs at 30."

At that time I certainly made an effort to check if there were any for hire. I could have bought one, but $45 was not something I had or wanted to spend today. Luckily a very nice person happened to overhear and kindly offered her spare one. Good thing too. The same person happened to point out some Black Skimmers on the beach amongst the gulls. I did check the flock briefly before but did not see them then. In case you don't know, they are the black and white birds with the strange orange bills.

On the boat while waiting a Great-tailed Grackle flew over. However I was too busy trying to work out what the long-tailed crow was and did not get a picture. This is proof of my ultimate weakness, which is spending way too much time trying to work out what things are and not enough time taking pictures. Shoot before you think is not something I am really born with.

It came to 8:00am, and finally the boat started moving. The captain presented himself and the crew and started by pointing out the Black Skimmers amongst the Western, Heermann's and the odd California gulls on the beach (The California gulls are pale grey on the back as opposed to dark; there is one adult past halfway visible in the picture above by itself) and we were on our way.

It was not long before a Parasitic Jaegar (EU: Arctic Skua) passed behind the boat, with the beach still very close. Jaegars (Pronounciation yay-gr) are a very widespread, but not too common, group of sea birds. If you were to ask me what they were "like" I couldn't answer. They are not like anything. Jaegars are like Jaegars. The flight is seagull-ish but other than that it is completely unique. Jaegar is purely an American term; in Europe the group is known as Skuas. Calling them Jaegars makes some sense, because the physically different South Polar and Great Skuas are already called Skuas. The "Jaegars" in comparison are very small and very different, so it makes sense to call them something different. Its like calling a Magpie a Crow. Sightings from the shore are fairly rare, and this bird could have definately been seen from the shore if you were in the right place. It was distant but you can identify the details at least at full size. I don't believe Blogger lets you see the whole size when you open it, at least not on my screen. Click on the picture below to see a crop at full size. It has not been resized at all, just some of the background has been cut off.

The first Sooty Shearwater came by soon after. No pictures are this point because I have much better ones later. The are very dark gull sized birds with pointed wings. For a pictoral reference, they look like the Jaegar above but are completely dark, have longer wings and a longer beak. The Sooty is a close cousin of the only pelagic bird I have seen, which was the Short-tailed Shearwater that washed up on the Arctic Tern event back in Australia. Sometimes they are unseperable, but the Sooty is generally told by the white under its wings. The Sooty is generally pale brown in this area. See this image here. (Sooty is the bottom wing). Shearwaters have a very distinctive flight. They generally flap five to seven times and then glide very close to the water surface and then repeat. Consult this ten econd (as in it took ten seconds to make, not representing ten seconds) diagram:

After that came a few funny little grey birds whizzing by very close. They were Red-necked Phalaropes, a very, very tiny pelagic shorebird. While they don't seem to be anything like Sandpipers in any ways, they are actually in the same family. Phalaropes don't even walk on the shore like all the other shorebirds. They swim out in the deep parts of lakes in the summer, and out at sea after August, foraging on whatevers around. Again, no pictures now because they are terrible at least compared to ones I have later on.

A cormorant passing by was a Brandt's Cormorant for a change. I was certainly happy to see a cormorant that was not Double-crested. I saw them at regular intervals, but I still didn't get a good picture of them probably because they were generally overshadowed by other birds. A Red-necked Phalarope perching on some kelp was the only shot I got of them sitting. This bird was peculiar as it did not fly when the boat came by; they are generally very skittish. The boat was not stopped for this one as they started to pop up all over the place, hence the motion blur.

A little fin popped up nearby and vanished instantly. "Minke Whale" was on the PA and there was a sudden influx of cameras on the right side. Unfourtunately this "slinky Minke" could not be seen again. Minke Whales are notorious for abruptly vanishing.

While on a pelagic trip you better get used to seeing this sight, because it is very common when no birds are around:

The first Pink-footed Shearwater appeared, followed by many others, amongst Sooties. Apparently Pink-footed have a slower wingbeat but after seeing each species in the hundreds I was still struggling to seperate them. It was a good thing there were other differences. This picture (and a cropped one in case you can't make it out) shows why they are called Pink-footed.

A Northern Fulmar also appeared well out and my only shot was it flying away. This bird was a dark morph. Northern Fulmars (called Fulmar in Europe) have three colourations: light morph which is entirely white, the dark morph which is dark, and the intermediate morph which is in-between. Strangely while its the same species as the European bird, I do not remember them having a dark morph in the U.K. Fulmars are not closely related to gulls but can easily be mistaken for them. They are actually Petrels, which can be told by their wing shape and the naricorn (the funny bit on the top of their bill), but unlike other petrels they are not as cute in appearance. Their name comes from some old language (I forget which) meaning Distasteful (Ful) Seagull (mar) which is a reference to the bad-smelling oil they use in defense like other petrels when handled, not too unlike the typically orange-coloured liquid used by ladybirds.

The deck then sprung into action as a Pomarine Jaegar was announced on the PA. It had appeared in a flock of Shearwaters off the bow in a feeding frenzy, though it did not sit on the water at all. The bird made several passes which was more than enough for the cameras, but it was unfortunate about the lack of sun. I have no idea why everyone was so enthusiastic about this bird, because there must have been at least eight of them throughout the entire trip. So far that meant I had two of the three Jaegar species, the missing one being the little Long-tailed, which was definately possible on this trip. Also present were some fairly distant Long-beaked Common Dolphins. I have no idea how the "mammal guy" came to a conclusion they were Long-beaked; the two Common Dolphin spp. are virtually identical. Normally range is the key to seperation but California is one of the few places where they are together. Unfourtunately they were the only ones on the entire trip.

Here are some more Pink-footed Shearwaters.

And this is when you finally get to see the Sooty Shearwater hellishly close to the boat and in the water. Told you I had better shots.

All of a sudden there was another frenzy with Cassin's Auklet announced on the P.A. It took a great deal of finding. This picture is pretty much what I saw.

So there was the situation. A bird the same colour and the same size as the shadows and ripples, and flying by at a blazing fast speed. It was undescribably difficult to find and keep in sight.

 If you had an amazing lens and could somehow keep the hefty equipment on it at the same time, this is probably what you saw.

Or if you were with a kit lens like myself, then you saw this.

The first image is a crop of the above.

I bet the majority of people didn't even see it quick enough. And it was as small as its looks. The bird itself is not too much dissimilar in size to a tennis ball.

That brings me to another topic; cameras. Virtually everyone had one of the following: Canon 7D with the same lens as mine, the exact same camera and lens as me (Canon 1000D + 75-300mm kit lens), the same camera as me but the lens I want for christmas (Canon 100-400mm IS), or some ridiculously extraordinary huge lens that cost you a pact with the devil (only two people of the thirty-five or so). I was actually surprised to see so many with a camera as basic as mine. At least I knew not too many people were getting better shots than me, and some people even had very basic SLR cameras that would have been no more than $100-200.

I am happy with a photo if it has a bird in it, and its not a tiny unidentifiable dot. Luckily with my current camera I can take a photo as such as size that what would have been an unidentifiable dot on my older camera is clearly visible at full size thanks to the image size I can take which more than makes up for a slight decrease in focal length which was slightly better on my old Panasonic. Even better, despite the apparent terrible quality on the crop; it is still identifiable to species without much effort (the white stripe on the underwing), even though the Auklet group are very similar.

The sea up to this point had been fairly calm, and it had actually stayed that way throughout the entire trip save one random wave that splashed everyone who happened to be on deck (not too many cameras out I hope). But even though it was calm it was still fairly difficult staying still. There were a lot of people loosing balance.

Another Northern Fulmar, this time an intermediate type, hurriedly took off as the boat came closer. This intermediate bird clearly showed its butterfly-like patterning and petrel-like tendency to water-walk.

Up ahead was another frenzied flock of Shearwaters and in the hope of finding two other Shearwater species the course was set. Upon arrival there was not Long-beaked but Short-beaked Common Dolphins. When I heard how difficult it was to photograph dolphins I was one of those "yeah, right" people. But in today's conditions, when you could not see them underwater it really was a shoot-and-hope-there's-a-dolphin scenario. My shutter speed was not fast enough to rely on it manually (I would just get the tail) and there were so many surfacing at once (photographer's reflex not helping i.e. waiting for movement then shooting) hence why many shots are off-center. In the below picture there are a few young individuals.

 

A certain energetic individual was doing a good job drawing the crowds with "oohs" and "aahs". In case you were confused, in the first image you are seeing the top of it (the fin on the left is the dorsal fin on the back and the fin on the right (not the tail) is the right pectoral fin). Both images are from the same leap.

As usual there were uncountable quantities of Pink-footed and Sooty (pictured) Shearwaters, but no sign of Buller's or Black-vented.

Another Brandt's Cormorant:

And a Brown Pelican very close to the boat.

At the next stop a Northern Shoveler appeared. You may be thinking from the Pelican shot that there is land so we can't be that far out too sea, but that is actually one of the Californian Channel Islands (Santa Cruz Island). And I'm sure there is some water there but the islands are very small; any kind of duck is an oddity out to sea unless its a Scoter, Merganser or Eider.

There was quite a sizeable concentration of Red-necked Phalarope here. The photo only shows some; most had flown off already.

Risso's Dolphin soon followed. Unlike the other dolphins, they were on the surface quite a lot so getting a picture was easy. However all they tended to show on this occasion was the fin. Risso's is a round headed squid-eating dolphin that does not have the beak of the typical species, and the dorsal fin is very long and curved which is a feature I could easily tell from a distance. I was happier to get this one because it is a deep-water species that is very rarely seen except well offshore and even then they can be hard to find. They are mostly dark grey, but can appear white because of scratches and scars. I have no idea what these scratches come from, but they accumulate an awful lot of them. All I can find is that their sensitive skin does not regenerate pigment when scratched from playing with other dolphins and squid and thus lasts them their entire life. Unless they were biting each other I can't really imagine this happening, and I always thought squid(s?) were soft and squishy but doing some research it seems a squid bite is worse than a pair of scissors.

About ten minutes on another pod of tenative Risso's were actually some Bottlenose Dolphins, a species that is not so common off-shore. There seemed to be some individual variation in fin shape which I did not expect to see as each dolphin type tends to have a unique falcate shape. This made four different dolphin species already which was not bad even on a whale-watching trip.

Before anyone knew it the dolphins had dispersed behind the boat and set up a pace. At the same time the P.A. came on with "Blue Shark off back". About two hundred metres ahead was a distinct triangular fin breaching the surface. As soon as the dolphins were there the fin abruptly vanished. Dolphins have a tendency to scare off sharks, but I don't think anyone expected it. There was a very narrow gap between finding the shark and taking pictures. It is near the top of the image (the splashing at the bottom is dolphins). I didn't expect to see Blue Shark here, as I was used to it being an Atlantic sea species but apparently it is in both sides.

Leaving that behind the boat sped up ahead and slowed down again with a Rhinoceros Auklet in the waters off the left side of the boat. This bird has a tendency to look very dull and non-descript at a distance, but it is actually rather colourful. Funnily enough this bird was very dull and non-descript as it was a firt summer (immature) bird. Yes, unfortunately only adults are colourful.

The boat sped up and slowed again shortly after, this time there was a dark morph Northern Fulmar very close to the boat. I finally got some good pictures of this bird. At a distance it can look very shearwater-ish but is not that closely related (but is in the same family) and even shares the flight as seen in the diagram earlier on. Close up it is easy to see the differences. The head is rounder and more petrel like and the naricorn (nostril) is easily seen on the top of the pale bill which itself is very unlike the shearwaters.

Red-necked Phalaropes soon started appaearing again off the left side of the boat.

Then "Red Phalarope at 9" came on the PA. There was a rush to get to the right side and sure enough a slightly larger but just as fast Phalarope had appeared. After the trip I wasn't sure whether he actually said Red Phalarope as I could not find any in my photos and I actually removed it off the trip list for a while, but sure enough after intensive looking through I did find the picture:

The Red Phalarope is called the Grey Phalarope in the U.K. and surrounding Europe (theres a rumour going around that Europe accepted Red now). The two names are quite amusing, because they both represent different plumages. In summer the Red Phalarope is entirely red with a white patch on the eye. In winter it is entirely grey like the bird here. It comes down to whether people want their special Phalarope named after its summer or winter plumage, or give it a completely different name altogether.

The Red can easily be mixed up with the Red-necked at a distance like the bird here, but there are several differences. It (Red) is much larger than the Red-necked, though as the Red was on the other side of the boat to the Red-necked flocks this was not helpful. The most reliable difference is the patterning on the back and the colour on the crown of the head. In the Red, the back is grey and in the Red-necked it is streaked with a multitude of colours. The Red-necked has a black cap and the Red has a faint grey smudge there. The former feature is obvious in this comparison shot, the latter not so.

The Red Phalarope is fairly uncommon off the Pacific coast, so it was a great bird to get.

Later on sitting on a floating Sargassum (floating seaweed) was a juvenile Common Tern. Not something I expected to see this far out, but apparently regular. Also here were four Common Loons. Originally these were identified as something else, but I couldn't make out what the PA was saying. There was some confusion and muttering amongst the birders. Sure enough this is where that quote from the start should be inserted.

"That would be Common Loon, that's why Matt is my mammal guy and not my bird guy!"

More Sooty Shearwaters taking off.

A few minutes on and "SKUA at 6, BEHIND THE BOAT. SKUA. SOUTH POLAR SKUA OFF THE BACK!" alerted the whole deck into yet another frenzy. At first I thought he was making a reference to the kitchen utensil (skewer) despite the fact that out here the bird is 99% more likely, but I was soon turned around when I realised what was actually said. 

Well off in the distance was a dark morph South Polar Skua, one of the largest sea birds, and an uncommon winter migrant down in California.

I'm assuming by the activity that it was extra uncommon down here. 

The next destination was to be off Santa Rosa Island where a giant flock of Storm-petrels (called a raft) has been for the past few months. As we came closer sure enough it could be seen.

There are two species of Storm-petrels here; Ashy and Black. The two are virtually identical and with these skittish birds it is almost impossible to approach them. If the boat came within two hundred metres then the original flock (first image) scattered (second image). Bait was put out in hope that they would come but only one strayed that close, and that was a single Black Storm-petrel. Apparently there was an uncharacteristic lack of Ashy Storm-petrel in the flock according to the tour guides.

There was some rumours about an Ashy, but it was too far even for the best cameras. At least taking pictures of the whole flock guaranteed both species. Up ahead, was something I don't think anyone expected.

It was an Ocean Sunfish.

A second Sunfish appeared later on as did the best candidate for an Ashy Storm-petrel. The back seemed greyish, but I don't think it can be seen unless its at full size, which Blogger does not seem to show even when you click on it.

More Risso's Dolphins showed themselves, this time a lot closer to the boat. The scratches are clearly evident. Remember that they are dark grey; the "white" individual is heavily scarred. The darker individual with a stylish three stripe scratch on its dorsal fin is likely younger because obviously more exposure = more scratches. If each scratch is one squid, then it shows not only that they encounter a lot of squid(s?) but that squids are definately not as cute and squishy as they make out to be. They apparently have a large appetite when compared to other dolphin and pilot whales.

Another Common (or at least "Commic") Tern was seen behind the boat. Commic is a tern used when there is no true agreement between if the bird is a Common or an Arctic; two rather similar species.

On approach to San Miguel Island another pod of Long-beaked Common Dolphins made an appearance with more shearwaters, but still no Black-vented or Buller's. This was probably my best shot so far of a Long-beaked Common. If only it was a little to the left.

On approach to San Miguel Island, we could see its distinctive arch that was somehwat but not really remniscent of the Needles of the Isle of Wight. The sun started to appear as we came closer.

We were being told about Sea lions but it wasn't until the boat was really close that they could be seen. Camouflage was well at work here.

Somewhere in this picture is a Black Oystercatcher. Its red bill should make it easy to find. It was very hard to find in the viewfinder, let alone naked eye.

Also noted were Pelagic Cormorants. Pelagic Cormorants are a skinny version of Brandt's but can be still be hard to seperate. I don't think I got the pictures of the bird in question, because with all the Brandt's flying around it was not easy. However around the cliff was a large cormorant colony and I have managed to find at least 2 Pelagic Cormorants. In the original image they are on the top left side next to a Brandt giving a good comparison of the neck thickness difference.

Brown Pelicans came very close to the boat as we left San Miguel.

Further from San Miguel was a monster group of Common Dolphins. Since the water was calm I guarantee every splash is a dolphin. I could not fit them all in one photo.

The whole way back to Santa Barbara it was strangely silent, especially considering the ton of activity experienced on the way. However as we neared a little fin popped up behind. "Minke Whale off the stern, possibly same individual from before."

However very few payed any attention and as soon as the fin was gone there was no onlookers apart from myself. Luckily for me it came up again rather unexpectedly. I was the only person looking in this direction, so I'm assuming I was the only person to get a decent look at it. A few others caught on when they saw me with the camera up, but they were far too late.

Red-necked Phalaropes were absolutely everywhere as we neared the dock.

Another Pomarine Jaegar was the last "pelagic" bird seen. A Whimbrel had appeared on a sandbar opposite the Black Skimmers from before. The latter had vanished, so there went my plan of getting a closer look on foot. In the dock Double-crested (AKA the regular North American cormorant) cormorant was sitting very close to the boat giving good looks.

Back by the car park was a little lagoon. I checked it for sandpipers and found a few Killdeer. Then I noticed a tiny little bird below them on the same side of the lagoon.

It was a Western Sandpiper, my first ever peep (Peep = one of those notoriously difficult to identify North American sandpipers in genus Calidris) in three years of living in North America. Long overdue if you ask me.

Not a bad end to the day. The trip report took 5 hours to type (12-5pm), so hopefully it is appreciated!

17 lifers. 18 if you include the missed Grackle.

Period:	9/17/2011
List:	95520
List Status:	Published in Atlas
Observer:	James Bailey
Notes:	Pelagic bird trip 17th September. Also seen: Long-beaked Common, Short-beaked Common, Bottlenose, Risso's Dolphins + Blue Shark, Antarctic Minke Whale, Ocean Sunfish and California Sea Lion.
Species:	29

Species	Scientific Name	Count	Comment
Northern Shoveler	Anas clypeata	1	Female/eclipse male well out to sea.
Common Loon	Gavia immer	4	Non-breeding birds.
Northern Fulmar	Fulmarus glacialis		Dark and intermediate morphs.
Pink-footed Shearwater	Puffinus creatopus		Many, but mostly further out to sea.
Sooty Shearwater	Puffinus griseus		Many.
Ashy Storm-Petrel	Oceanodroma homochroa	4	Very few.
Black Storm-Petrel	Oceanodroma melania		Large flocks.
Brandt's Cormorant	Phalacrocorax penicillatus
Double-crested Cormorant	Phalacrocorax auritus
Pelagic Cormorant	Phalacrocorax pelagicus		Possible birds off San Miguel.
Brown Pelican	Pelecanus occidentalis
Great Blue Heron	Ardea herodias	2
Snowy Egret	Egretta thula	3	At dock in Santa Barbara.
Black Oystercatcher	Haematopus bachmani	2	San Miguel Island.
Whimbrel	Numenius phaeopus	1	At dock in Santa Barbara.
Red-necked Phalarope	Phalaropus lobatus		Many close to Santa Barbara dock.
Red Phalarope	Phalaropus fulicarius	1
Heermann's Gull	Larus heermanni		More abundant than Westerns.
Western Gull	Larus occidentalis
California Gull	Larus californicus	1	San Miguel Island. Pale grey back and yellow feet.
Common Tern	Sterna hirundo	2
Elegant Tern	Thalasseus elegans	1	At dock in Santa Barbara.
Black Skimmer	Rynchops niger	12	At dock in Santa Barbara.
South Polar Skua	Stercorarius maccormicki	1	Dark morph.
Pomarine Jaeger	Stercorarius pomarinus
Parasitic Jaeger	Stercorarius parasiticus	2	All near Santa Barbara early on.
Cassin's Auklet	Ptychoramphus aleuticus	1
Rhinoceros Auklet	Cerorhinca monocerata	1	1st summer.
Great-tailed Grackle	Quiscalus mexicanus	1	Dock in Santa Barbara.