We found several rafts of hundreds of Pink-footed Shearwaters
Orange County Pelagic Trip
When you sign up for a 10-hour boat ride to see ocean birds, you accept the possibility that many of those hours will be spent looking at nothing but water in every direction. Or that you’ll be fogged in with less than 100 feet of visibility. Or that the waves will be rough enough to make everything unpleasant. In exchange for those possibilities, however, you get the chance to see birds you will not ever see from land. Some species are expected. Others are gifts of chance, materializing when your boat just happens to cross paths with the wanderings of a bird on an infinitesimally small and completely unpredictable point on the earth’s vast oceans.
Pelagic birding is the last frontier of birding on the planet. The distribution of the birds of the world’s basins, beaches, bogs, jungles, hills, mountains, deserts, plains, plateaus, agricultural fields, forests, lakes, marshes, mesas, valleys, volcanos, creeks, capes and canyons are well known. The birds of the oceans remain comparatively mysterious. We have a sense of what’s out generally there, and where they breed. But many ocean birds spend their lives cruising widely, pushed here and there by wind and storm, and the shifting location of their food.
South Polar Skua
I recently took a boat ride with a few dozen birders out of Dana Point, California. The plan was to spend the day primarily in relatively nearshore Orange County waters. We visited spots with names like Crespi Knoll, the Lausen Sea Mount, the 279-fathom Bank, and the Catalina Ridge. At most, I think we were 25 miles off-shore. The day started with big flocks of Pink-footed Shearwaters and smaller numbers of Black-vented Shearwaters. The Black-vented Shearwaters are expected near-shore birds, sometimes occurring in massive winter flocks. The Pink-footed Shearwaters were a surprise. They normally are found only in small numbers off southern California. The hundreds we were seeing were unusual.
The first good rare find on the boat was a South Polar Skua sitting on the water about 10 miles out. Skua are bulky bullies of the oceans, chasing gulls and shearwaters and boobies, forcing them to drop fish they’ve caught. They breed on the coast of Antartica, and can be found in any ocean. I’d seen a pair of South Polar Skuas on a Maine whalewatching boat. This bird was my first for California. In the same area were a few Pomarine Jeagers. Similar to skuas, but not as large, they “hunt” at sea by stealing fish from other birds. During breeding on arctic tundra, they feed on lemmings.
Pomeraine Jeager
After this excitement, a few hours of mostly nothing followed. Besides a big flock of Black Storm-Petrels, it was pretty empty out there. At 2:30pm, the boat turned back in the direction of Dana Point. Things had been dragging since 10am, and spirits were somewhat down despite the South Polar Skua from the morning. But I hadn’t lost my optimism. I yelled out for folks to keep their eyes out, confident there was at least one more good bird to find before we made it back to harbor.
Red-billed Tropicbird
A little after 3pm, our great trip leader, Tom Benson, yelled out “Red-billed Tropicbird!!” Out ahead of the boat, a white bird had lifted off the ocean and thankfully turned to fly toward the boat. It made a fly-by along the port side, giving great views. These are beautiful birds rarely seen from land, and not often seen in nearshore southern California waters. They’ve got a dark red bill, sharp black markings on the face, back, and wings, and long tail feathers. This was a lifer for me.
Ten or fifteen minutes later, Tom was at it again. This time, he screamed out “Flesh-footed Shearwater!” This was a rarer bird than either the skua or the tropicbird. And it would be another lifer if I could get my eyes on it. They’re the same size and shape as the Pink-footed Shearwaters it was amongst. The key distinguishing feature is an all dark brown body. It took me some time to find it on the water, but I did. Seconds later, it flew directly away from the boat. I got one picture that I think is the bird, but you can’t tell. Two lifers on the last leg of the trip was a nice finish to the day.
Pink-footed Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
It wasn’t just birds out there. We also saw a Humpback Whale, a few Fin Whales, dolphins, a mola mola, a flying fish, and multiple dragonflies during the day. Given the pleasant conditions, and nice rarities, it was a successful trip.
