Lots of Shearwaters Off Oceanside
7:21 pm
Anyone else see this? This morning my wife and I observed thousands of Black-vented Shearwaters from the beach/pier in Oceanside.
I estimated (guesstimated?) 5,000. The birds frequently shifted direction in swirling masses. The flock extended from the northern jetty
bordering the boat channel to south of the pier, a distance of least 1.4 miles. Numbers like this aren’t uncommon off La Jolla, but are not
common this close to the coast in Oceanside. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a scope to check carefully for other possible seabirds.
I estimated (guesstimated?) 5,000. The birds frequently shifted direction in swirling masses. The flock extended from the northern jetty
bordering the boat channel to south of the pier, a distance of least 1.4 miles. Numbers like this aren’t uncommon off La Jolla, but are not
common this close to the coast in Oceanside. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a scope to check carefully for other possible seabirds.
Ken Weaver
Fallbrook
gnatcatcher@…