[CINC] Brown Booby on SMI Trip with IPCO on Saturday

[Bernardo Alps]

Hi all.

On Saturday, September 8, I joined the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium on a trip to San Miguel Island aboard IPCO's Islander out of Ventura Harbor.

It was windy and while the swell wasn't very high for most of the trip, the seas were very sloppy and the interval between crests very short, making for an uncomfortable ride. Captain Anthony stayed close to the coast for the first third of the way and then slowly cut across the channel. Many of the 91 passengers were sick and miserable when we got to the island.

We found two humpbacks and a couple of minke whales in the same area where the boats have been seeing them for the past few days. There were small groups of common dolphins scattered throughout the first half of the trip, but we didn't stop for any mammals on the way out since the trip was going to take longer than expected because of the rough seas.

In the harbor, there were some shorebirds on the rocks, including 100 Willets, one Surfbird, one Black Turnstone, two Black Oystercatchers and one apparent American Oystercatcher. I say apparent because the two species hybridize, and our area is on the very limits of the American Oystercatcher's range  and hybrids are more common than pure birds. I did not see the bird in enough detail to "score" it (there is a scale on which points are assigned for the amount of white in different part of the plumage to access it if is a pure bird), but from what I was able to see I believe it is pure American Oystercatcher.

Just outside the harbor and for the first couple of miles we had more birds than on the rest of the trip. I estimate there were about 300 each Sooty and Black-vented Shearwaters. The numbers of Black-vented Shearwaters continue to grow, pointing towards nesting failure on the breeding grounds in Baja California. Numbers of birds were much lower throughout the rest of the trip. We had a total of five Pink-footed Shearwaters, seven Cassin's Auklets, four Pomarine Jaegers and two unidentified jaegers. Among the rarer species we had two Black and one Ashy Storm Petrels. About five of the approximately 200 phalaropes were Red Phalaropes, the rest were Red-necked Phalaropes. That ratio is expected as the reds tend to occur further offshore, outside of the islands.

We saw two spectacular, stop-the-presses birds on the trip. Near the mid-channel buoy on the way out we had an adult female Brown Booby. This species is common in the Sea of Cortez with a small colony of about a couple of dozen individuals on the Coronado Islands just south of the border, and pretty rare this far north. We see one about every two or three years in the county. On the way back, in the same general vicinity, we saw what had to be a member of the Dark-rumped Petrel complex. The more likely species of this group is the Hawaiian Petrel, and one has just been seen on a trip out of Half Moon Bay and another on a trip out of San Diego. A pterodroma petrel is not expected in the channel as this group usually frequents really deep waters. I was not able to study the bird well enough to be absolutely certain of the ID, but I think that is was it was.

Sabine Faulhaber and George Roberts were waiting for us on the beach in Cuyler Harbor but there was too much of a surge to land near Niederver Canyon so we had to go ashore further west, near to the palm trees where about 20 elephant seals were hauled out. The fact that we were late getting to the island coupled with our more remote landing site precluded a hike to the Caliche Forest. About two thirds of the 91 passengers ended up hiking to the Cabrillo Monument and the Ranger Station. The island endemic subspecies of Song Sparrow was the most common bird with about 20 seen. We also saw one House Finch and one Orange-crowned Warbler, although the bird was probably a migrant and not a member of the island endemic subspecies since it was very yellow and not the expected drab green. Several Common Ravens spent a lot of time and effort harassing a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk. Surprisingly many plants were still in bloom, including a single giant coreopsis, and one hiker walking ahead of the group spotted a fox on the trail. It was uncomfortably windy the whole time we were on the island; on the beach it felt like you were expose to a sand blaster.

Crew members Pancho, Joel and Page did a great job getting everyone back aboard relatively dry in the unfavorable conditions and when we were ready to leave we discovered that we had snagged a derelict anchor with ours. It took the valiant crew over half hour to get us free and underway.

Take care,

Bernardo