Buena Vista Audubon and Grande Pelagic Sunday Sept. 23, 2018

The Buena Vista Audubon and Grande Pelagic  Sunday was a great success. Bird species of note included Least Storm-Petrel,

Masked/Nazca Booby, Red Billed Tropicbird, Long-tailed Jaegers, Craveri's Murrelets.

We found a large raft of storm-petrels on the Thirty Mile Bank. The makeup of 700-800 Black Storm-Petrels and 100 plus

Least Storm-Petrels. This about 26 nautical miles west of Ocean Beach.

A immature Masked/ Nazca Booby was well seen and photographed on the Nine Mile Bank near

the end of the trip. This bird about a half mile north of the border and 11 n.m. s.w. of Point Loma, This sighting continues a

long string of white bodied booby reports for 2017-2018.

A close in Red-billed Tropicbird was on the water over the San Diego Trough early in the day perhaps 15 n.m. southwest of

Point Loma. This species has been rather scarce this year.

Long- tailed Jaegers best considered rare locally inside San Clemente Is. were in exceptional numbers with at least five.

We had three adults fly right in to the chummed gull flock for nice photo opportunities. All Long-tailed Jaegers seen from the

Nine Mile Bank or further offshore.

Three pairs of Craveri's Murrelets were found. One pair allowed close approach for photos. Two of the pairs were in the expected

area of the Thirty Mile Bank. The last pair, I. D. form photos, was surprisingly inshore on the inner edge of the Nine Mile. Likely

8 n.m. or less from Point Loma.

A partial list;

Greater White-fronted Goose  30+  (high V seen off Point Loma).

Northern Fulmar   3

Pink-footed Shearwater   27

Sooty Shearwater   2

Black-vented Shearwater   110

Leach's Storm-Petrel chapmani   2

Ashy Storm-Petrel    4

Black Storm-Petrel   850

Least Storm-Petrel   120

Red-billed Tropicbird    1

Masked /Nazca Booby   1

Brown Booby    5

Red-necked Phalarope    27

Red Phalarope    4

Pomarine Jaeger   5

Parasitic Jaeger   3

Long-tailed Jaeger  5

jaeger sp.   1

Craveri's Murrelet   6

Sabine's Gull   3

Common Tern    10

Elegant Tern   225

Dave Povey

Dulzura

p.s. The last 2018 Buena Vista Audubon and Grande Pelagic is Oct. 21, 2018. For reservations call 619 222-1144 or log on

to www.hmlanding.com .  See trip details and reports at www.sandiegopelagics.com.