Shearwater Journeys Part 2

Finally getting around to finishing up this post about the pelagic trip I took almost two weeks ago! I will just jump right back in where I left off...

After seeing the BFAL towards the beginning of the ~8 hour boat ride, I had no idea what to expect for the rest of the trip. As it turned out, there was a lot more to see over the next few hours, although most of the wildlife disappeared just as quickly as they appeared. We would go relatively long stretches without seeing much, and then suddenly a spotter would call out "arctic tern, 1 o'clock!" or "ashy storm-petrel, five o'clock heading right!" or even "parasitic jaeger, 11 o'clock, below the horizon!" and we would all clamor to one side of the boat with our binoculars up (or some people would have their cameras and giant lenses hoisted up and ready) hoping to get a glimpse of the seabird before it disappeared into the horizon. I snagged photos when I could, but only the albatross photos came out decent. Still, as long as a photo shows enough detail to ID a bird, I am happy.

The BFAL following the boat for a short ways before flying off

Admittedly, I am a complete novice when it comes to seabirds. I am usually pretty good at remembering a species after I see it in the field for the first time, but I am sure I would fail to ID 90% of the same birds if I were to encounter them again. We saw so many species and most of them were from great distances, so there was not much of an opportunity to really get the observation detail required to commit a bird to memory (at least for me). All in all, I suppose the trip turned out to be more of an opportunity to get some exciting lifers (first time seeing a particular species) than an educational excursion, which I am perfectly OK with.

Heermann's gull, Larus heermanni (HEEG)

Sabine's gull, Xema sabini (SAGU)

common murre Uria allga COMU

pink-footed shearwater, Ardenna creatopus PFSH

The following bird was excitedly called out by a fellow passenger as a "tufted puffin!", but a few moments later he corrected himself and explained, "sorry, I'm British, don't know my birds!"

rhinocerous auklet, Cerorhinca monocerata RHAU

we went at least 25 miles out in search of seabirds

Birds were not the only wildlife we we observed. A pelagic trip from Monterey up towards Santa Cruz is bound to include at least a couple cetacean sightings, and considering how far off shore we were heading we had a really good chance of seeing something cool.

Our first whale sighting was none other than the great blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus. I was shocked when I heard one of the spotters call out to another, "follow it, it looked like a blue!"

"A...blue whale?" I asked to no one in particular, somewhat dazed. I had never seen one before and did not know that we would have a chance to see one on that trip. I expected humpbacks, not blues. This was VERY exciting for me because my first animal obsessions as a little girl were cetaceans, with birds only emerging a couple years later (that time period was also punctuated with obsessive stints over garter snakes, emus, and anacondas).

behold, part of a blue whale...

...and some more of the same whale a moment later...

...and some more...

...still going...

...and the last we saw of him as he dove under. note: my camera was not in burst mode, so although these photos are successive, they were taken over 20+ seconds...that's how huge that whale was. It took over 20 seconds for only PART of the whale to touch the surface as it came up for air and dove back down. It reminded me of those scarves magicians pull out of their sleeves that seem to go on forever.

So, that was neat.

We also got treated to the expected humpback whales:

quintessential fluke image

We also saw dolphins! Pacific white-sided dolphins Lagenorhynchus obliquidens and northern right whale dolphins Lissodelphis borealis.

We had a few dozen pacific white-sided dolphins bow riding and swimming along all sides of the boat (upwards of 50, maybe/probably more). Of course, they are so fast and agile that most of my photos are of white, bubbly splashes where the dolphin used to be half a second before.

The right whale dolphins were swimming just under the surface, so I did not get any pictures. They were super neat though, because they looked like giant black torpedos, since they lack a dorsal fin.

SO, finally, to wrap-up this post I give you the final bird species list:

Red-necked Phalarope
Common Murre
Rhinoceros Auklet
Black-footed Albatross
Pomarine Jaeger
Pink-footed Shearwater
Long-tailed Jaeger
Black-legged Kittiwake
Elegant Tern
Buller's Shearwater
Parasitic Jaeger
Cassin's Auklet
Arctic Tern
Ashy Storm-Petrel
Sabine's Gull
Black Tern
Whimbrel
Black Turnstone
Pigeon Guillemot
Heermann's Gull
Sooty Shearwater
Brandt's Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant

Thanks for reading :)