Ten Years Special!!!! Multi-day possibilities

Did you hear about the special?

 

Monterey Seabirds Summer eNewsletter

Ten Years!

I can hardly believe that ten years will have passed since I posted the trip report for our first trip on Aug. 25, 2002. In that time we have logged more than 100 trips on the Monterey Bay and met some wonderful birders from all over the world and seen some remarkable seabird rarities and cetaceans . We hope you can join us in 2012.

To celebrate our 10 year anniversary we are offering special price for all of you on our email list. The Sunday, Sept. 9 trip is priced at $115 ($130 regular price). Just type in special offer in the Optional Comments or Question box or mention it on phone reservations.

http://www.montereyseabirds.com  831-375-4658

Multi day trip possibilities

Monterey Seabirds and Alvaro’s Adventures have timed their trips so that visiting birders from out of the area can do multiple pelagic trips over a single weekend or bookend pelagic trips with some land birding in between. All of the Monterey Seabird trips are scheduled for Sundays and Alvaro Jaramillo has scheduled his trips out of Half Moon Bay on Saturdays. For Al’s Schedule see: http://alvarosadventures.com/boat-trips/pelagics/

Out of the area birders can fly into San Francisco International, drive over the hill to Half Moon Bay to do the pelagic with Alvaro and then drive south towards Monterey for a pelagic trip the next morning.

Half Moon Bay is nearly 2 hours from Monterey but birders could stop for the night halfway in Santa Cruz (1 hour from the dock, or Watsonville (40 minutes from the dock).

Note that on the mid September weekend Alvaro is running a trip out of Monterey on Saturday and we have a trip the following day. This is also the weekend for the local birding festival. Our trips run $24 less than the festival trips that are being offered. Festival attendees are most welcome.

Multi day schedule:

Aug. 25 HMB w/ Alvaro’s Adventures

Aug. 26 Monterey with Monterey Seabirds  (10 spaces left)

Sept. 8 HMB Alvaro’ Adventures

Sept. 9 Monterey Seabirds

Sept. 15 Alvaro Adventures in Monterey for a charter

Sept. 16 Monterey Seabirds

Oct. 6 HMB Alvaro’s Adventures

Oct. 7 Monterey Seabirds

Note all trips will be $130, no fuel surcharges. And yes if you go on three Monterey Seabird trips in the calendar year your fourth trip is free. We keep our group size small.

Alaska Airlines is now flying out of Monterey with daily flights to and from San Diego. Airfare specials are currently less than $100 each way.  There are other flights out of Monterey to Las Vegas, San Francisco, Phoenix and Denver.

Leaders in the news:

The new issue of Winging It mentions in the Milestones section that leader Stephen F. Bailey "ticked world bird number 6,772 when he saw Kenya's endemic Aberdare Cisticola in Aberdare National Park on 10, April 2012. This seemingly arbitrary number represents two-thirds of the 10,157 species currently recognized by the Clements Checklist. Congratulations Steve!

We also welcome to our team of spotters veteran seabirder Rod Norden. Here is his bio from our website’s leader page:

Rod Norden started birding back in his college days with legendary birder Ted Parker. Doug Stotz was also his birding mentor (and housemate) in 1970's Tucson. Some of his photographs appeared in Rich Stallcup's book Birds of the Nearshore Pacific (1990) and the Stokes Eastern and Western Field Guides (1996). He got the photo of the first documented Stejneger's Petrel in North America (Nov. 17, 1990) that he shot with a manually focused film camera mounted on a gunstock. He and Steve Bailey also sighted the first record for Dark-rumped Petrel (prior to it being split).

Rod is also an avid astronomer and docent at the Lick Observatory. He is a favorite with visiting birders. He likes getting to know people and really enjoys helping folks sort our seabird identifications. After a long stint in high tech and world travel (with pelagic trips in all three oceans), Rod is now teaching computer science at Cabrillo College.

Monterey Seabirds is on Facebook! Become a fan today. I try to keep it updated with current events in the Monterey Bay.

I hope to see you at sea!

Roger Wolfe for Monterey Seabirds

Shearwater Journeys meta tagging Monterey Seabirds

Ironic that Debi of Shearwater Journeys described her trips on the Calbirds listserv this morning as "friendly, inclusive," and then she proceeds to direct readers to her blog with the heading, "Monterey Seabirds with Shearwater Journeys." This is what is known as meta tagging to direct web searches to her website by using the name of a competitor in the heading of the blog post.

Apparently there is nothing illegal about doing that. I could do it too (actually I am doing just that right now) but I'm sorry it just seems slimy. Of course this isn't the first time. It was done repeatedly on her blog last year. It isn't as egregious using our name in the heading for her ads in Winging It magazine. "Monterey Seabirding with Shearwater Journeys.

Her website schedule page is headlined, "Monterey Seabirding with Shearwater Journeys."

I have a lot of respect for Debi. Her stamina in doing so many pelagics trip per year is impressive and I have tried to work with her schedule to avoid conflicting dates but this sort of behavior is vexing.

Nobody likes being bullied and that's why we're here.

Best,
Roger for Monterey Seabirds

October 29th Laysanpalooza

Laysan Albatrosses

It was either Ken Petersen or Glen Tepke who dubbed this trip Laysanpalooza. The trip highlight being three LAYSAN ALBATROSS, two of them at once and a third later in the day. Once again we found a FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER which we found on almost every trip out of Monterey this season. We also got some up close looks and got to hear the vocalizations of two XANTUS'S MURRELETS (scrippsi).

Xantus's Murrelet

Lots of photographers on board today. I had considered a photo contest but Martijn Verdoes has that lens that everyone wants to own but no one wants to pay for. You have to admit he gets some pretty amazing shots with it. All photos are copyrighted and can be used by permission only Martijn Verdoes/Agami.nl

Black-footed Albatross

Martijn will be heading back to Holland soon. We will miss him and his great seabirding ability and photography. Thanks for all your help Martijn!

Don Roberson's eBird reports:

Monterey Bay pelagic (MTY Co.), Monterey, US-CA
Oct 29, 2011 8:30 AM - 2:45 PM
Protocol: Traveling
50.0 mile(s)
Comments:     aboard 'Pt Sur Clipper' on Monterey Seabirds trip with Richard Ternullo, skipper; Roger Wolfe, Dan Singer, Martiijn Verdoes, Tim Amaral, Blake Matheson (and reporter D. Roberson); Ken Peterson, Peter LaTourrette, Tom Grey, Sarah Lane, Jeff Poklen, Don Glasco, John Cant, Tom Malone, Jackie Weller, Pete Sole, Glen Tepke et al. Very sunny but rather cold (at least in a.m.), with large swells offshore (6-8'). Beaufort 2 conditions in a.m. with wind out of the east (and inner Bay flat calm) but wind picking up to Beaufort 4 in afternoon return. Route was to Pt. Pinos (see inshore checklist; we spent quite some time within 1 nmi of shore, looking at a feeding group of Grampus), then west out 18 miles, a bit northwest but turned south beofre entered SCZ waters; then SW to 22 nmi W of Cypress Pt., and return via Pt. Pinos and inshore see separate checklist for the combined inshore legs.). Compared to a comparatively birdless day last Sunday, numbers of shearwaters were up again (although fulmars were down). Pretty birdy all day, but no whales. Mixed swell & chop many conditions difficult for small alcids etc. This checklist only species encountered >1 mile offshore; today, a few Brandt's Cormorants and pelicans were offshore, but guillemot, Elegant Terns, migrant coots all 'inshore.'
24 species (+2 other taxa)

Surf Scoter  8
Pacific Loon  7
Laysan Albatross  3     two came to boat ~8 nmi W of Cypress Pt., at 36°40.082'N, 122°06.488' W [=36.668944, -122.113556] and hung around a long time after Roger put  out a slick. Many photos. The 3rd bird was ~3.52 nmi W of Pt. Joe [at 36°38.228N, 122°01.503W = 36.639667, -122.030639] and continued to come back at us, probably last seen ~3 nmi off Pt. Pinos. Also photo'd. None seemed to be banded (need to double-check photos)
Black-footed Albatross  12     some followed us for hours; I think 12 is minimum, could have been more
Northern Fulmar  50     down from last weekend
Pink-footed Shearwater  85
Flesh-footed Shearwater  1     photo'd
Buller's Shearwater  25
Sooty Shearwater  7     numbers way down
Brandt's Cormorant  6     beyond 1 nmi offshore (many more inshore)
Brown Pelican  5     beyond 1 nmi offshore (many more inshore)
Peregrine Falcon  1     11.5 nmi offshore (distant photo), and heading west!
Red-necked Phalarope  2
Red Phalarope  4
Bonaparte's Gull  12
Heermann's Gull  5
Western Gull  50
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid)  1
California Gull  200
Herring Gull (American)  1     adult
Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid)  1     first-cycle, best guess at i.d.
Pomarine Jaeger  9     including at least one full-tailed adult
Common Murre  40
Xantus's Murrelet (scrippsi)  2     14 nmi W of Cypress Pt.; vocalizing 'pair' separated accidentally by the boat; presumably a father/full-grown chick duo.
Cassin's Auklet  60
Rhinoceros Auklet  15

Inshore report for eBird:

This checklist only species encountered <1 mile offshore, and includes birds on the jetty, the Aquarium tower, and the egrets/herons standing on kelp beds (but not land birds in the harbor).
23 species

Eared Grebe  8
Northern Fulmar  1
Brandt's Cormorant  250
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Pelagic Cormorant  1
Brown Pelican  25
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  3
Snowy Egret  2
Peregrine Falcon  1     sitting on Aquarium tower
American Coot  95     big flock of ~80 in a pack a half-mile off the Aquarium on calm seas; 2 more out as far as 0.75 nmi offshore (checked with skipper on that location), then inbound in p.m., a dozen more about a half-mile W of Pt. Pinos. Very odd to see coots on the ocean, but all were within a mile of shore.
Black Turnstone  4
Bonaparte's Gull  15
Heermann's Gull  50
Mew Gull (American)  2
Western Gull  100
California Gull  100
Glaucous-winged Gull  1
Elegant Tern  6
Common Murre  20
Pigeon Guillemot  1     juv
Cassin's Auklet  5
Rhinoceros Auklet  1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)


 

August 28, 2011 trip report

Shearwater Journeys reported a GREAT-WINGED PETREL on their Monterey Bay trip two days prior to our outing. When word got out we had a last minute rush on signups so there was the expectation that we would look for it in the same area it was reported from.

That was just fine with me. I don’t need an excuse to spend more time in Santa Cruz County waters.  Even Don Roberson was willing to venture outside Monterey County, a Great-winged would be a state bird for him.

We were psyched up as we pulled away from the dock but all in all it was a tough day as far as visibility was concerned. It was down to less than a quarter mile for much of the trip and at times it was difficult to tell where the horizon was. The gray ocean met the gray sky seamlessly.

Spotter Tim Amaral's ablilty to speak Japanese finally came in handy. I think this was the first time that we have had a pair of birders who hailed from that country.

I have to say I don’t recall a trip at this time of year having these kind of species totals. We saw only one each of BULLER’S and PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERS but we did see thousands of SOOTY SHEARWATERS. Skipper Richard Ternullo termed this trip the Sooty Shearwater Study Tour.

(photos by Tom Grey, copyright) 

Sooty Shearwater

Miraculously we did manage to find a flock of storm-petrels near Cabrillo Canyon and picked some BLACK STORM-PETRELS out from amongst the many ASHY STORM-PETRELS and a bonus was a single FORK-TAILED STORM-PETREL that approached the boat quite closely.

Jaegers were in short supply with only a few POMARINES for the day.

We had some nice views of ARCTIC , COMMON and ELEGANT TERNS and saw lots of both RED and RED-NECKED PHALAROPES.

Red Phalarope

We stopped the boat for the largest OCEAN SUNFISH/MOLA MOLA I’ve ever seen.

We covered a little more than 70 miles total. Here is the map of our route:

http://share.gps.motionxlive.com/shr/x/kmz/8572026ea2ed0ecea772c52a0b945109

Thanks go out to our spotters Matthew Dodder, Bruce Elliot, Don Roberson, Tim Amaral and to Alex Rinkert for chumming. All photos Tom Grey copyright

eBird report by Don Roberson:

Monterey Bay pelagic (SCZ Co.), Santa Cruz, US-CA Aug 28, 2011 9:50 AM - 1:10 PM Protocol: Traveling 25.0 mile(s) Comments:     aboard 'Pt Sur Clipper with R. Ternullo, skipper; leaders R. Wolfe, M. Dodder, T. Amaral, B. Elliott, and me; chummer Alex Rinkert; with Glen Tepke, Peter White, Kris Dunlap, Tom Edell, Tom Grey, Maggie Smith, Kenneth Peterson, Stan Snyder, Richard Norton, Richard & Pamela Clark, and more. Most of day very foggy -- drizzly wet fog into early afternoon but otherwise very calm seas with some swell, visibility often poor, especially on SCZ portion of trip. Route was Monterey harbor to Pt. Pinos and WSW to 8 mi W of Pt. Joe, then NW into SCZ portion of bay, checking Soquel Canyon and "the fingers", then east back to middle of Bay and east to Salinas R. mouth, back along nearshore coast to harbor. This is one of 3 checklists for the trip: inshore portions (both a.m. & p.m.), Monterey Co. portion >2 nmi offshore (both a.m. & p.m.), and Santa Co. portion at midday.  

(Santa Cruz county, Monterey inshore, Monterey offshore)

Common Loon 0,1,0

Black-footed Albatross  3, 0, 8

Northern Fulmar  6,1, 7

Sooty Shearwater  15000, 300, 5000     huge flock after flock of Sooties sitting on flat calm sea in the fog; I guesstimated avg 300-600/flock and 30+ flocks, plus many additional birds. So 15K seemed reasonable
Buller's Shearwater 0, 0, 1
Pink-footed Shearwater 0, 0, 1

Brandt’s Cormorant 0, 500, 1

Pelagic Cormorant 0, 2, 0

Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel  1,0,0

Ashy Storm-Petrel  300

Black Storm-Petrel  20

Brown Pelican  1, 0, 5

Least Sandpiper 0,0,1

Red-necked Phalarope  50, 10, 150

Red Phalarope  100,0, 150

Sabine’s Gull 0,0,4

Heermann’s Gull 0, 20, 5

Western Gull  100, 100

California Gull  10, 20

Arctic Tern 0,0,3

Common/Arctic Tern  0, 2

Elegant Tern  1, 5, 1

Pomarine Jaeger 3

    mid-Bay, far offshore

Common Murre  500, 50, 300

Pigeon Guillemot 4, 0, 1 about 6 nmi W of Pt. Pinos

Cassin's Auklet  10, 1, 10

Rhinoceros Auklet  40, 0, 20

Also:

Humpback Whale

Dall’s Porpoise

Harbor Porpoise

California Sea Lion

Elephant Seal

Harbor Seal

Mola Mola/Ocean Sunfish

Egg Yolk Jellies