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| Feeding frenzy; Black-footed Albatrosses and Northern Fulmars. |
Our final trip of 2009 was well attended and a great success. Most of our guides joined this trip to help spot birds and explain ID to our guests.
We didn't have any rarities on this trip, but we were surprised to see Brown Pelicans diving into the sea for food up to 12 miles from shore.
A couple of miles outside Perpetua Bank (125 degrees west) we encountered a small mid-level hake trawler that had just pulled in its nets. Most of the albatrosses and fulmars were here. Despite being gorged on bycatch, they scrambled over each other to take our chum offerings. The adult albatrosses bleated their complaints like sheep and the younger albatrosses whistled their begging calls. Simultaneously, the fulmars were giving their poultry-like excited "guck, guck, guck" calls. It reminded me of my childhood on my grandfather's farm....
A few photos from the trip gradually are being placed on my pBase photo site.
Trip list:
Greater White-fronted Goose 45
Cackling Goose 75
Northern Pintail 300
Green-winged Teal 8
Surf Scoter 250
White-winged Scoter 100
Red-breasted Merganser 2 (seen by few)
Common Loon 8
Pacific Loon 5
Red-throated Loon 3
Western Grebe 1
Black-footed Albatross 350
Northern Fulmar 750
Pink-footed Shearwater 65
Sooty Shearwater 100
Short-tailed Shearwater 4 (seen by few)
Buller's Shearwater 40
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 8
Brown Pelican 750
Double-crested Cormorant 15
Brandt's Cormorant 80
Pelagic Cormorant 60
Whimbrel 1
Red Phalarope 10
Red-necked Phalarope 35
Heermann's Gull 45
Mew Gull 8
California Gull 65
Herring Gull 5
Western Gull 45
Glaucous-winged Gull 7
Sabine's Gull 4
Common Murre 80
Pigeon Guillemot 7
Marbled Murrelet 8
Cassin's Auklet 180
Rhinoceros Auklet 70
South Polar Skua 3
Pomarine Jaeger 1 (seen by few)
Parasitic Jaeger 1 (seen by few)
Humpback Whale 1
possible Blue Whale (distant spouts only) 2 (seen by few)
Harbor Porpoise 3
Steller's Sea Lion 8
California Sea Lion 3
Harbor Seal 30
Ocean Sunfish 5
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