[CINC] CX Trip Report of 9-17

[Bernardo Alps]

Hi all.

There was a small craft advisory for the West Channel on Saturday, so we decided to head southeast towards SBI to refind a large flock of storm-petrels reported from an IPCO trip the day before. Seas were nice and flat and there was very little wind for most of the trip, it only got a little bumpy heading back through the channel. We didn’t find anything spectacular but we had a nice string of sightings to keep us entertained for the whole eight hours. Leaders Todd McGrath, Dave Compton, Adam Searcy and Wes Fritz gave a lot of detailed information and answered a lot of questions about the birds we saw. 
We caught a quick glimpse of a minke whale hear the string of oil rigs on our way out and had a couple of nice looks at what was likely the same animal on our way back. We found the first of many pods of Long-beaked Common Dolphins neaby. As we were about mid-channel in line with the west end of Anacapa, Captain Mat heard some chatter on the radio about possible Pilot Whales. Pilot Whales are extremely unlikely, but we did have orca on the brain after the sighting off Point Fermin the day before, http://sanpedronewspilot.com/profiles/blogs/orcas-in-pedro, so we decided to investigate further. Mat found out the sighting was near Prisoners, so we started heading that way.  We soon found a very active pod of about 350 short-beaked common dolphins which gave us an opportunity to compare them to the Dc that we see way more often in the channel. While we were being entertained by the Dd, word came over the radio that the sighting was actually a humpback so we turned again and went through the Anacapa/Santa Cruz gap.

Just on the other side of the islands we found a pod of about 16 Risso’s and another of about 25 offshore Bottlenose. A little further from Anacapa we found a couple hundred Long-beaked Commons spread out over a wide area and feeding at the surface. We had seen lots of Sooty Shearwaters and quite a few Pink-footed Shearwaters both in the channel and outside of the islands, but as got further away we saw almost only Ashy and Black Storm-petrels. And then we found a giant raft of some 2000 Black Storm-petrels sitting on the water together. This was what we had come looking for, but unfortunately there were no other species mixed in. 

On the way back to Anacapa we passed two more small pods of Gg, and likely the same Tt and Dc from before. We passed very close to the east end of the island where a lot of California sea lions were hauled out. On the way back across the channel there was another fund pod of Dc. And we saw a couple of fairly large Mola Mola.

Western, California and Heermann’s Gulls were everywhere in good numbers. We only saw a couple of Elegant and a couple of Common Terns.  There were some Pomarine Jaegers throughout the trip and a few Parasitic Jaegers. A single South Polar Skua was probably the most exciting bird of the trip. Not many alcids, just a couple of Cassin’s Auklets and some good looks at a Rhinoceros Auklet.  Red-necked Phalaropes were encountered throughout the trip in small numbers, with highest concentrations on surface breaks south of the islands with a few Red Phalaropes mixed in. The two species of storm petrels are the ones we most commonly see in the channel and it was a great opportunity to study their identification. Ashy Storm Petrel is a local specialty; there are probably only 10,000 individuals and outside of the Channel Islands they nest only on the Coronados and the Farallons. 

For those of you who are bummed that missed this trip, the “Condor Express” has another eight-hour birding trip planned in a couple of weeks, on Saturday, October 1. The exact itinerary will like only be decided on the morning of the trip, but it will be another opportunity to learn about the sea birds on our area.

Take care,

Bernardo