offshore San Diego: Cook’s Petrel, Manx Shearwater, Red-footed & Nazca Boobies, 2 B-f Albatrosses
By – 4:11 pm
Several folks went offshore out of San Diego on Sunday, Aug 21st. Choppy seas on the way out, settled down somewhat thereafter. There were large numbers (thousands) of birds along the outer part of the 9-Mile Bank, mostly associated with tuna. Highlights there were a brief fly-by Manx Shearwater with thousands of Black-venteds, a Red-footed Booby, a sub-adult Nazca Booby, and an immature Masked/Nazca Booby–as well as 9 Brown Boobies. Also a single flock of 55 Sabine’s Gulls. Farther offshore, we had a single Cook’s Petrel at the 30-Mile Bank and 2 Black-footed Albatrosses at The Corner. Also a fair number of Arctic Terns, Long-tailed Jaegers, and a seasonally very rare Northern Fulmar. Good numbers of Townsend’s and Leach’s Storm-Petrels continue. We had zero Craveri’s Murrelets or Least Storm-Petrels–perhaps due to the choppy ocean surface. Offshore totals were as follows:
Red-necked Phalarope 35
Red Phalarope 31
Pomarine Jaeger 1
Parasitic Jaeger 2
Long-tailed Jaeger 3
Cassin’s Auklet 13
Sabine’s Gull 70
Western Gull 110
Common Tern 20
Arctic Tern 12
Elegant Tern 360
Black-footed Albatross 2
Leach’s Storm-Petrel 39
Townsend’s Storm-Petrel 10
Black Storm-Petrel 68
Northern Fulmar 1
Cook’s Petrel 1
Pink-footed Shearwater 175
Sooty Shearwater 9
Manx Shearwater 1
Black-vented Shearwater 5200
Masked/Nazca Booby 1
Nazca Booby 1
Brown Booby 9
Red-footed Booby 1
Brown Pelican 340
Brandt’s Cormorant 1
warbler sp. 1 (possibly Hermit)
–Paul Lehman et al., San Diego