offshore San Diego Weds.

A number of folks went offshore today on two different boats from Mission Bay, hoping for a repeat performance of the huge numbers of shearwaters present this past Saturday. Such was not the case. Although there was a respectable number of birds still in the area (no farther offshore than about 7 or 8 miles), the numbers were way down, and there was no single especially large concentration of birds. Water temps are now back to normal, following the inshore cool down last week and were mostly between 70-73 degrees. Our 5-hour “private” trip was also handicapped by two hours of dense fog that made birding at that time almost impossible. Highlights of this quick trip were a juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger only 2 miles off La Jolla and an adult Arctic Tern. Otherwise, some totals included 3 Pomarine & 1 Parasitic Jaegers, 7 Sabine’s Gulls, 15 Common Terns, 15 Black Storm-Petrels, 35 Sooty Shearwaters, 250 Pink-footed Shearwaters, and 1300 Black-vented Shearwaters.

Paul Lehman et al., San Diego