Deep Blue Sea

The whole reason for our California trip was to go out on a 4 day pelagic birding trip - out into the Pacific ocean to find west coast sea birds. The trip was an opportunity to see some birds that we don't get in the Atlantic ocean. The boat is a 95 foot fishing and natural history cruiser called the Searcher. Paul and Anita talked it up last year and we got 13 east coasters to sign up. That made the trip even better. This is not an ordinary pelagic trip where you sleep on the deck and bring your own Wawa hoagies. This boat has cabins and a chef! Barbara and I got a cabin together with bunk beds and room for our bags. Unfortunately for Barbara, our cabin was right next to the diesel engine which roared along all day and night.

As for the birds and sea life, we saw it all including whales, dolphins, sharks, sea lions and lots of birds. We headed out of San Diego port on Monday afternoon and immediately saw sea lions and birds along the docks and rocks of Point Loma.

We hit the big stuff right away with whales. The 2 largest whales in the ocean showed up on our first day. First was a Blue Whale. This is the largest being to ever live on earth - reaching lengths of 90 feet. Look at the nostrils on this beast.

Blue Whale

The second longest whale in the world is the Fin Whale. Seen here just after it dove under our boat! Zoom in to see the parasites hanging off of it.

Fin Whale

Common birds followed the boat including this Western Gull who I caught looking for chum in our wake.

Western Gull

And this Elegant Tern followed us for a long time but turned back once we got far from land.

Elegant Tern

But these are not the birds that we came out for. We were more interested in Shearwaters like this Pink-footed Shearwater.

Pink-footed Shearwater

Named for their pink feet but frankly, alot of birds have pink feet. You can see the feet in this photo. Many of the sea birds take flight by running across the water to get enough speed to lift off.

"Pinky"

Other birds that most of the participants wanted to see were Craveri's Murrelets. A murrelet is an alcid which is related to Puffins. They are diving birds that remind you of Peguins only they can fly (which penguins can't do).  Craveri's are another one of those birds that was just created by a split. They used to be Xantu's Murrelets until they split into 3 species. They are like little flying softballs. Try finding one of these in the vast Pacific ocean! Well, we found about a dozen of them over the course of the trip.

Craveri's Murrelets

Craveri's Murrelets

Of course, whales aren't the only creatures in the sea. There are also (gulp) sharks. This Hammerhead Shark was cruising along the surface right next to the boat. You can barely make out the hammerhead shape under water.

Hammerhead Shark

This flying fish actually flew for a long distance before diving back underwater. It was amazing to see this fish in action. Even more amazing that I actually got a photo.

Flying Fish

One of the birds that I can never get enough of is Northern Fulmar. We have these in the Atlantic too but we rarely see them. This guy almost got run over by the boat. He is in heavy molt and missing many feathers which makes it difficult to fly. Check out the feather shafts sticking out of his backside. These are new feathers that haven't unfurled yet.

Northern Fulmar

There is much more to tell you and more photos of amazing sea life and sea birds. Stay tuned.

Boats and Airplanes

When the Nerds are in Florida, you can pretty much count on us being out on the boat as much as possible. You may recall that the girls have a 23 foot boat that we use when we are down there. Fun stuff for sure. The photos of the Frigatebird, Bald Eagle and the Osprey were shot from the boat. The boat also allows us to get out to the Gulf of Mexico and onto some beaches where the Plover and Turnstone photos were shot.

Boating is definitely fun but all vacations must come to an end.  Our vacation was supposed to end on Thursday, but the weather had other plans for us. Our flight was cancelled after we sat in the airport for almost 5 hours. We were told to return on Friday which we did but the airline still had no planes available. The Nerds decided to spend some money to take a taxi to another airport and get on a different flight home. That required us to fly into a different airport back here too. Long story short - we arrived home 36 hours later than we planned - at 8 PM Friday night.

I was up and on the road by 3:30 AM (yes, AM) on Saturday headed up to Long Island NY to catch another boat for a pelagic birding trip. I thought about cancelling but I am glad I went on the trip. It was one of the best pelagics that I have been on so far.

We left the dock at 6 AM and were greeted by a Black-legged Kittiwake at sunrise.

Black-legged Kittiwake at Sunrise

These are small birds that look like gulls but are somehow different. They spend most of their life up north like most of the birds that we saw on the trip. This is a Northern Fulmar. I call them the Bulldogs of the sea because they carry all of their weight up front. Mean looking suckers.

Bulldog - Northern Fulmar

The highlight of most winter pelagics for me is watching the Gannets dive for pieces of beef fat that we use for chum. Gannets are related to the Boobies that I posted about in November. They are very large birds with wide wingspan. They have beautiful markings around their bills and eyes.

I learned something about them on this trip. I watched 2 Gannets fly around the boat and dive for chum. I tried to photograph the dive but it was difficult to time until I noticed that each bird would squawk just before diving. The first photo shows the bird letting out the squawk. He would slow down by spreading his feet and tail feathers and the let out the noise. I think this is his way of saying "Get out of my way or get stabbed"

Look Out!

Check out the green lines on his feet too. Pretty cool.  The next photo is the closest that I got to the actual dive. The Gannet pulls his wings behind him and dives head first into the water. You can see the concentration on his face. The Herring Gull is definitely getting out to the way.

Here I Come!

We broke a New York state record for number of Common Murres seen in one day - 230. We also saw Dovekies, Puffins and Razorbills - all of which are in the Alcid family. My photos are not great since most of them would fly away from the boat or dive underwater as we approached.  This is the typical view:

Bottom's Up

Sadly, the best shots that I got of a Razorbill was the dead one that we found floating. We scooped it up with a fish net so that we could take it to the Academy of Natural Sciences to add to their collection. Here are some photos. The first shows Paul holding the bird which was in great shape - well, except for being dead that is.

Paul holding dead Razorbill

 The birds are called Razorbills due to the shape of the bill. Alyssa took this great close up photo of the bill.

Razorbill - photo by Alyssa Della Fave

We arrived back at the dock at 6 PM after a perfect day at sea. You should have noticed how calm the sea looked in all of the photos - not like the last trip! Here is a fishing boat that we passed on our way back to the dock. This is a few miles offshore and the water looks like glass.

Fishing Trawler - "Vengeance"

Wait til you see what I did on Superbowl Sunday . . .