More grey.

Have I told you yet how opposed I was to the idea of going on a pelagic?  I had a long list of reasons as to why I would never do such a thing.  Lack of an escape route.  Forced socializing with other birders.  PUKING.  So the fact that I ended up on a boat at all is kind of miraculous.  Even more so is the fact that I would do it again.

Here are some more terrible photos of grey birds on grey water with grey skies...

 Sabine's Gull


Pink-footed and Flesh-footed Shearwaters

Pink-footed Shearwaters

 Sooty Shearwaters

One of the trip highlights was coming across a large raft of storm-petrels- I believe they estimated 8000 birds.  Most were Ashy Storm-Petrels but we also picked out Black and Wilson's.

Storm-petrel city

Ashy?  Turns out I can only tell Ashy and Black apart when they are together for reference

 Turns out I'm a liar.  I can tell this is a Black Storm-Petrel

Wilson's Storm-Petrels in the center with the white rumps

On our way back to shore we stopped for a couple of Tufted Puffins ridiculously close to the boat.

 Sexy

 Not sexy

So yeah.  The trip was excellent.  Even my nonbirding friend that came along had a good time.  The New Captain Pete served us well.


In case you are curious, some other birds seen that did not make it onto the blog were:  Pacific Loon, Great Shearwater, Black Oystercatcher, Red-necked and Red Phalaropes, Pomarine and Parasitic Jaegers, Elegant Tern, and Cassin's and Rhinoceros Auklets.  Oh and Yellow Warbler.  We had two different Yellow Warblers circle the boat.  Weirdos.

Good times!!

Comments

  1. Sounds like a great trip. A Great Shearwater on the west coast is a huge deal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congrats on all the sightings, Jen! I love the closeups of the puffins! Cute birds! What a great trip!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The birds were ok, but that mola mola was awesome! Just kidding (sorta), the birds were pretty freaking cool out there. Plus, no puking!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Holy Guacamole! What a list of sightings. That puffin is of course so cute! What no puking? How did you manage to keep the camera straight at all? I took one pelagic trip when I was in Alaska. IT was dreary sky wise, I did see T. Puffins, Long-tailed Jeager, Bonaparts, Mew, and Glaucous gulls, and black legged Kittiwake. BUT the cutest thing I saw was sea otters breaking clams open on their bellies using rocks...they swam around on their backs so CUTE...I didnt sick on the Pelagic but my sister did,
    http://youtu.be/SzgINPwMp00

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow! We missed out on storm-petrels last weekend. Guess we need to do a California trip soon.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a great list of birds! I'm extremely jealous of your storm petrels.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment