[CINC] CX, 8/13/13

[John Kuizenga]

Cetaceans:
2 - Humpbacks
2,500 - Common Dolphins in multiple large and small groupings
1 - Minke
5 - MN¹s reported by Mat, all out of close observation range, with dwindling
time

Birds:

8-10,000 Shearwaters, mostly Black-vented and Sooty¹s with a sprinkling of
Pink-footed
Elegant Tern
Double-Crested Cormorants
Assorted Gulls and Pelicans

Captains Mat and David reported Humpbacks had been observed the previous day
in an area East of  Rincon Oil Island and three to four miles off the coast,
so we ventured forth.
In route to this area we happened on a group of over twelve hundred Common
Dolphins spread out over a large area, making the grouping appear even
larger than it was. Throughout the day we encountered other groups of DC¹s,
some large, some small, either scouting and/or nursery groups, with many
football size little ones in the mix.
Once arriving in the area we located a single Humpback and followed it at an
appropriate distance for nearly an hour.  However, reciprocity wasn¹t
happening, thus no friendly approaches or muggings. This whale was busy busy
surface feeding, displaying a minimum of behaviors, but did cooperate for
many PID opportunities, with short down times and frequent fluking.
When we approached this whale Capt Dave thought it could be a whale that
performs a unique behavior similar to one in ³Ropes² repertoire, where upon
surfacing ³Rope² takes water in the blow hole and splash guard and then
spits it out in spasmodic pulses of water with a great gurgling commotion.
Today however this whale performed no such behavior.

After an hour, it was time to investigate another nearby school of dolphins,
a relatively small nursery grouping with many babies.  Following a brief
visit we were off again, at which point Capt. Mat spotted a distant Humpback
performing repeated tail throws, so we ventured in for a closer look and Mat
thought we had happened upon our initial MN sighting once again, but it
turned out to be a new sighting, a thinner, smaller whale and PID images
confirmed a similar but slightly different fluke print.

Many of you have reported seeing large #¹s of Shearwater in recent days and
today was no exception, with thousands of sightings, some in clusters, not
unlike a smarm of bees. (Bob may have a posting of this) The CX brain trust
estimated there may have been as many as 10,000 molting Shearwater in this
group alone and we¹d been seeing them spread out all day as well.
    
Note:  Speaking of Shearwaters, CX photographer extraordinaire Bob Perry
mentioned a fact I wasn¹t aware of and that is, only the Sooty Shearwater
migrated to New Zealand. Capt Matt added that²Pink-footed end their
migration in Mexican Waters and the Black Vented S. migration terminates is
Chile²  Incidentally, check out Bob¹s laminate in the wheelhouse: ³Sooty
Shearwater Migration Routes², it¹s very interesting.

Over one hundred passengers aboard today from many foreign countries,
including: France, Belgium, the Netherlands and UK.  My partner today was
the affable Rae Emmett, who I believe made contact with every single
passenger.   

Rae Emmett, Naturalist and John Kuizenga, PID
 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.rain.org/pipermail/channel_islands_naturalist_corps/attachments/20130813/a9b8b69b/attachment.html>