[CINC] Condor 1-15-12

[Bernardo Alps]

Hi all.
 
Sorry for the late report, this is for birds seen on Sunday's Condor Express trip.
 
Take care,
 
Bernardo
 
 
Things are a little odd in the channel, birdwise. I can't remember ever seeing as few birds as during the passage to the west end of Santa Cruz Island on Sunday. I didn't see ten birds during the whole trip once we left the harbor until we arrived at less than a mile from the island. The squid induced feeding aggregation that included several hundred each Risso's dolphins, long-beaked common dolphins and California sea lions also included a good number of birds. 
 
As expected, Brandt's cormorant was the most abundant species; I chalked up 900 either sitting on the water of roosting on the island. There were also many pelagic cormorants, most in breeding plumage with big white flank patches and red faces. We don't see individuals in breeding plumage very long out there. The alcids were represented by eight Cassin's auklets, 16 common murres and seven rhinoceros auklets. I also saw five murrelets, most likely Xantus' murrelets, but I didn't get good enough looks to make sure. There were very few tubenoses. Only saw a handful of black-vented shearwaters near the island and none near the mainland. There was one short-tailed shearwater in the feeding flock and a beautiful white morph northern fulmar a couple of miles north of the cave. 
 
On the island I spotted two black oystercatchers and three common ravens and a red-tailed hawk was circling above the island.
 
The complete list is below.
 
Santa Barbara Harbor, Santa Barbara, US-CA
Jan 15, 2012 10:10 AM - 10:17 AM
Protocol: Traveling
0.9 kilometer(s)
Comments:     Island whale watching trip aboard the Condor Express.
12 species
 
Bufflehead  9
Pacific Loon  1
Horned Grebe  1
Eared Grebe  5
Double-crested Cormorant  30
Brown Pelican  120
Great Blue Heron  1
Snowy Egret  6
Heermann's Gull  12
Mew Gull  1
Western Gull  20
California Gull  45
 
 
Pelagic CondEx Islands, Santa Barbara, US-CA
Jan 15, 2012 10:17 AM - 2:18 PM
Protocol: Traveling
60.0 mile(s)
Comments:     Island whale watching trip aboard the Condro Express.
17 species (+1 other taxa)
 
Pacific Loon  7
Common Loon  1
Northern Fulmar  1     
Short-tailed Shearwater  1
Black-vented Shearwater  6
Brandt's Cormorant  600     
Pelagic Cormorant  50     
Brown Pelican  60
Heermann's Gull  25
Ring-billed Gull  2
Western Gull  250
California Gull  175
Herring Gull  1
Glaucous-winged Gull  1
Common Murre  16
murrelet sp.  5     
Cassin's Auklet  8
Rhinoceros Auklet  7
 
 
Santa Cruz Island Pelagic Painted Cave, Santa Barbara, US-CA
Jan 15, 2012 12:05 PM - 12:23 PM
Protocol: Traveling
6.0 mile(s)
Comments:     Birds seen ON or above Santa Cruz Island during whale watching trip aboard the Condor Express.
8 species
 
Brandt's Cormorant  300
Pelagic Cormorant  20
Brown Pelican  60
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Black Oystercatcher  2
Western Gull  200
California Gull  30
Common Raven  3
 
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)