La Jolla Cove [south} May 30, 2020
Was at the Cove 5:45-7:45. Peter Ginsburg joined me from 6:15-7:45.
The day started off propitiously with a black-footed albatross heading south about 1.5 miles offshore.
A few minutes later, a pair of adult Heermann’s Gulls heading north were the first of the summer, and on the slightly early side for returnees. [There are a handful of immatures hanging around the Cove still.]
Then it went downhill fast, before Pete arrived. Light was terrible all the time; cloudy and dark.
Plenty of storm-petrels widely scattered everywhere.
But the feeding frenzy had moved to the south and _much_ further offshore.
We could see a huge mass of shearwaters circling far away, but they were infinitesimal specks, and we could not identify them to species.
If I hadn’t witnessed the tsunami of sooty shearwaters yesterday heading out towards that area, I would not have any idea what species we might be seeing.
At one point, a half dozen scoters flew north past us, and Pete was able to see that one was a male black scoter; I got a quick glimpse of the bill to see that the yellow knob was limited in size, so first-summer.
Quite late for a spring migrant here.
Finally, we had 2 black oystercatchers flying back and forth below us.
One landed on the sandy beach and Pete went over to watch it probing in the sand for food.
I’ve never before seen a black oystercatcher standing on a sandy beach, let alone feeding on one.
Stan Walens, San Diego
May 30 2020; 5:45 pm
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports