[CINC] Island Explorer Sunday 7/28/2013

[Kevin Bailey]

4 Blue Whales  - 1 circled the boat (like a humpback mugging) – came up at
bow and then on all four sides of the boat checkin’ us out before it swam a
little farther away;  for all those that say “I came to see a Blue Whale”,
they were ecstatic; less than a handful of folks had ever seen a Blue Whale
and many had never seen any whale, but on the other extreme a couple people
travel the world (from CO) in search of wildlife and got a few things
checked off their bucket list today (including the Blue Whale box)

Bait fish / Krill could be seen between 100-200 feet under boat which kept
the Blues with us for a good long time

3 Humpback Whales 

2500+ commons in mini pods to small pods of several hundred with lots of
young ones and scattered throughout the day

20 Risso’s with 4 newbies that looked like they were born this morning

8 Elegant terns above the 1st feeding frenzy

1000’s of Brandts Cormorants along SCI

1 juvenile Bald Eagle flying above SCI at the west end

1 adult Bald eagle with blue tag (could not see the number) perched on a
branch ½ way down the hill

A deep ride into Painted Cave with lots of Pigeon Guillemots

Sea Lions at entrance to the cave and then in several spots along SCI – 1
with a tag that Steve from IPCO thinks was released a couple weeks ago and
looked to be doing just fine sunning itself on the rocks

10 min from home a tight feeding frenzy with a humpback, dolphins, sea
lions, diving elegant terns, plunging pelicans, pink footed shearwaters,
sooty shearwaters, red necked phalaropes, cormorants, various gulls; outside
the tight feeding frenzy circle the birds were everything for maybe a mile.

Lots of excited people from Austria, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Italy, CO,
FL, IA, ND, NV, MA, OR, PA, UT, and several from LA area

Coming into the Ventura Harbor the jetty was covered in birds again (it was
not as we were leaving this morning – must have been out fishing). What was
interesting is that the top 1/3 of the rocks had pelicans (the biggest bird)
and then in the middle of the rocks (from the top to sea) were cormorants
(medium sized birds) and then the bottom layer closest to the ocean were
terns (the smallest of the 3 birds). Interesting how they had their “pecking
order” of who gets to sit where on the rocks.

 

Excited to see my 1st Blue Whale of the season, (especially so close)

Kevin Bailey

 

 

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