Sep 26th San Diego pelagic: Red-footed, Masked/Nazca, & Cocos Boobies; lots of Least Stormies

The San Diego pelagic trip on Saturday, September 26, aboard “Legacy” out of Seaforth Landing and sponsored by Buena Vista Audubon Society was highlighted by boobies and storm-petrels. A cooperative Red-footed Booby circled the boat time and time again over a distance of over four miles some 5-1/4 to 9-3/4 miles off Mission Bay and Point Loma, a young Masked/Nazca booby was roosting at the end of the Mission Bay jetty as we departed in the morning, and a Cocos Booby was off Point Loma.  A good total of 240 Least Storm-Petrels (scattered, but mostly at the 30-Mile Bank, but also as close as barely over a mile or two from shore), plus moderate numbers of Leach’s (18+).  Somewhat surprising were the Great Blue Heron over the San Diego Trough and the Merlin out at “The Corner,” some 33-1/3 miles offshore.

Lots of photos from the trip will be posted with the shared eBird lists out probably on Monday.

Offshore totals for the trip were as follows:

Red-necked Phalarope  200

Red Phalarope  6

Pomarine Jaeger  2

Parasitic Jaeger  5

jaeger sp.  2

Cassin’s Auklet  1

Sabine’s Gull  4

Heermann’s Gull  4

Western Gull  300

California Gull  2

Common Tern  10

Elegant Tern  4  (low)

loon sp.  1

Leach’s Storm-Petrel  18

Black Storm-Petrel  105

Least Storm-Petrel  240

Sooty Shearwater  1

Pink-footed Shearwater  13

Black-vented Shearwater  700

Masked/Nazca Booby  1 

Cocos Booby  1

Red-footed Booby  1

Brandt’s Cormorant  3

Brown Pelican  5

Great Blue Heron  1

Merlin  1

Brown-headed Cowbird  1

Yellow-rumped Warbler  1

Also:  Hammerhead Shark, N. Elephant Seal, Calif. Flying Fish, Mola-Mola, Pelagic Red Crabs

For information on past and future trips, see sandiegopelagics.com

–Paul Lehman, Bruce Rideout, Dan Jehl, Nick Barber, Dan King, Paul Mulholland, Nick Thorpe, Patti & Sally, San Diego