[CINC] CX trip was for the birds

[Mr Zalophus]

What a day!

Yes, this trip was definitely for the birds as the Condor Express teamed up
with LA Audubon for a 9-hour offshore pelagic bird trip.  The adventure left
the dock at a foggy 7am, crossed the Channel and headed south of the islands
where we found blue skies and light winds.  Pelagic bird target species were
hunted around Santa Cruz Basin, a huge deep area that runs 20 miles or so
out past Santa Cruz Island.  At one point we were approximately 20 miles
from Santa Cruz Island, Santa Barbara Island an San Nicolas Island.  (This
was the "short" trip, the longer trips run 14 hours and go waaaaaaaaaaaaaay
out).

*Mammals:*
2 Humpback Whales
1000 California Sea Lions (on the rookery grounds at East Anacapa Island)
25 Common Dolphins
1 Northern Elephant Seal
1 Northern Fur Seal
4 Pacific Harbor Seals (3 at Anacapa, 1 in the Harbor)

*Pelagic Birds observed included: *
Longtail Jaeger
Pomarine Jaeger
South Polar Skua
Northern Fulmar
Black Storm Petrel
Least Storm Petrel
Pink footed Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Black vented Shearwater
Fork-tailed Storm Petrel
Sabines Gull
Arctic Tern
Royal Tern
and all the usual gulls, pelicans, cormorants we see all the time.

Photos will be posted up later.
Bob Perry
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.rain.org/pipermail/channel_islands_naturalist_corps/attachments/20100919/cd5ee817/attachment.html>