San Diego 24 May pelagic trip: LEAST Storm-Petrel, Craveri’s Murrelet, Black-footed Albatross
5:04 am
The May 24th San Diego pelagic trip aboard “Legacy” and sponsored by Buena Vista Audubon Society ventured as far out as the 30-Mile Bank/The Corner, some 32 miles offshore. Seas were moderate in the morning, lightening up as the day went on. There were reasonable numbers of birds to see for much of the day, but it quieted down in the mid-afternoon once back inshore. One or two very cooperative Black-footed Albatrosses came right in to the boat on repeated occasions. Unfortunately, the rarest birds of the trip were not identified until after the fact from photos. A large raft of approximately 900 Black Storm-Petrels at the bottom end of the 30-Mile Bank contained one Least Storm-Petrel, the second-earliest arrival on record for the county (the earliest was on18 Apr 2016). And a very early Craveri’s Murrelet was flushed also in the 30-Mile Bank area. The choppy sea surface made spotting the small alcids difficult. Totals for the day once we were over a mile or so offshore were:
Red-necked Phalarope 5
Pomarine Jaeger 2
Parasitic Jaeger 2
jaeger sp. 1
Scripps’s Murrelet 12 (included large chicks)
Craveri’s Murrelet 1
Cassin’s Auklet 13
Sabine’s Gull 4
Least Tern 2 (as far offshore as 30-Mile)
Common Tern 2
Royal Tern 4
Elegant Tern 45
Common Loon 1
Red-throated Loon 1
Black-footed Albatross 1 or 2 (SD Trough & 30-Mile)
Ashy Storm-Petrel 4
Black Storm-Petrel 1150
Least Storm-Petrel 1 (southeast corner 30-Mile)
Sooty Shearwater 300
Pink-footed Shearwater 100
Black-vented Shearwater 300
Brandt’s Cormorant 6
Brown Pelican 40
Also, Fin Whale, Risso’s Dolphins
–Paul Lehman, Bruce Rideout, Dan Jehl, Dan King, Jimmy McMorran, Paul Mulholland, Matt Sadowski