Date: 8/10/25 4:19 am From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] San Diego pelagic trip Aug 9th: Manx Shearwater, Masked/Nazca Booby, 30 Townsend's S-P's, 12 B-f Albatrosses, Blue Whales galore
The San Diego pelagic trip on Saturday, August 9th, on board "Legacy" and sponsored by Buena Vista Audubon Society took place under good sea and weather conditions. We went out past the 9-Mile Bank to the 30-Mile Bank and The Corner. A pleasant to good number of birds were present throughout much of the trip. The two most unexpected species found were a Manx Shearwater in the western San Diego Trough (22.9 mi WSW tip Point Loma) and a young Masked/Nazca Booby also in the Trough (17-1/4 mi WSW tip Point Loma) repeatedly flying around the boat and diving. The booby was in its first year, so very tough to tell the two species apart, and some of the characters of potential use seemed to be partly contradictory. Copious close photos will be sent out for review. A first TENTATIVE identification is that it is a young Masked. Another highlight of the trip was the large numbers of white-rumped storm-petrels, totaling about 90 birds, with 30+ Townsend's, 30 Townsend's/Leach's, and 5 white-rumped & 30+ "Chapman's" Leach's. We set the all-time high count of Black-footed Albatrosses for the county with ca. 12 birds, with 8 in view at once. And we had a great show of Blue Whales, with at least 8 seen, several of which were very close to the boat and actually fluked. Alas, we only had 6 murrelets, including two pairs of Craveri's seen rather poorly, and a single Least Storm-Petrel was seen by only a handful of observers.
Photos of these highlights will appear in upcoming eBird lists, probably tomorrow. Totals for the day once we were over a mile offshore were:
Red-necked Phalarope 10
Pomarine Jaeger 12
Parasitic Jaeger 5
Craveri's Murrelet 4
murrelet sp. 2
Cassin's Auklet 5
Sabine's Gull 16
Heermann's Gull 12
Western Gull 200
Elegant Tern 120
Black-footed Albatross 12
Leach's (Chapman's) Storm-Petrel 32
Leach's (white-rumped) Storm-Petrel 5+
Townsend's Storm-Petrel 30 (high)
Leach's/Townsend's Storm-Petrel 30
Ashy Storm-Petrel 3
Black Storm-Petrel 250
Least Storm-Petrel 1
Sooty Shearwater 80
Pink-footed Shearwater 120
Manx Shearwater 1 (32.62, -117.64)
Black-vented Shearwater 670
Masked/Nazca Booby 1 (32.61, -117.53)
Brandt's Cormorant 18
Brown Pelican 275
Also: Reddish Egret, 8 Blue Whales, Fin Whale, N. Elephant Seal, Mako Shark, California Flying-Fish
--Paul Lehman, Bruce Rideout, Nancy Christensen, Dan Jehl, Jimmy McMorran, Paul Mulholland, Brennan Mulrooney, San Diego
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