Albatross, Otters noses.

Readers of my recently published eBook (surely everybody reading this!) will recall that I saw a Black-browed Albatross sitting on Saito Outcrop, Unst, Shetland. I saw the same bird the following year doing exactly the same thing and so I`d never seen a flying albatross.

Skip forwards to June 15^th and our phone call to book tickets for a Whale watching boat trip off Monterey, California. Inshore seabird watching is limited in June, except when it comes to Sooty Shearwaters. On the occasions that I was able to look at the sea, there were thousands of them filing through, a seemingly endless supply. The boat operators http://www.montereybaywhalewatch.com/ warned that the weather the following day might mean that the tour didn`t run, the tour seemed to be our best (only) chance of finding an albatross, a Black-footed Albatross to be precise.

We washed up at Fisherman`s Wharf bright and early and are were relieved to hear that we were on for the trip. Cash changed hands and we duly boarded the Pt Sur Clipper, full of hope and expectation that the next four hours of bouncing about on the sea would be productive. The boat naturalist thought we had a chance of an albatross, but only if we headed west more towards Moss Landing. At this point I flagged up our birding interest, if only to make her aware that birding was our main interest.

The reason Monterey is good for sea birds is that the sea drops steeply offshore and the colder water forces food upwards in the swell, the same swell that makes most trips off there a bit on the bouncy side. The clipper is a smallish boat and lacks the stability of the whale watching boats we’ve taken off Tadoussac, if anything this made it more of an adventure as we sat at the front eagerly scouring the waves.

About 30 minutes after we’d left harbour we started hitting the Sooty Shearwater flocks, with groups resting on the sea or shearing past the only way they know how. We hauled past a couple of floating blobs that morphed into Rhinoceros Auklets. Seeing them well in the bins was not too hard but taking their photo was a little more challenging.

We were the only birder passengers on-board, the rest being day tripper types, some with camera, others wearing the usual vacant expression you see on first-timers, as the next wave hits harder than the last. After a short while we started to see Humpback Whales, in fact the bay seemed full of them. We counted at least 20 and a few favoured us with a fluke (bottom photo, Blue Whale top). A little later we found the big ones, Blue Whales, and we naturally spent a good deal of time with them, even though all you get it a bit of back and fin at the best of times.

Just as we found the second Blue Whale the tannoy announced that an albatross was approaching the front of the boat. In the same breath they announced that it had landed and I managed brief and wholly awful views of either the albatross or a bunch of floating Coconuts, drifting away in the distance. After ten minutes or so the albatross decided to stop messing around and did a fly past, just to check out the options. We were not chumming, well not in the usual fashion but one or two did try to add their breakfasts to the mix, and so the albatross didn’t linger too long. Torn between seeing the whales well and seeing the albatross better I chose the latter and did.

The last Blue Whale signalled the time to return to port and we cruised in scattering Brandt’s Cormorants and several Pigeon Guillemots as we entered the sheltered bay of Monterey Harbour. If you are out Monterey way and fancy a good trip, I can recommend this particular trip with this company, everything about it was excellent.

OK, so nobody asked what the title of the post was all about – congratulations, you are a true Monty Python fan.

Best Western

Although our trip out west was ostensibly non-birding, there really is no such thing when you are joined at the neck by your bins strap. Perhaps the patience required for carting the scope through the 500 or so airport security checks is another clue as to where my particular focus lies. Yes the Golden Gate Bridge is neat, but the ABA tick Black Swift flying around it was way neater.

Our first couple of nights were based in Half Moon Bay, CA and from there we took a not unenjoyable three hour coach tour of downtown San Francisco where the highlights were several trip ticks in addition to the swift plus some buildings, some hippies and other non-bird related things. Fisherman’s Wharf was a great place to snap Western Gulls and a Heermann`s dropped by too. The Western Gulls were very bold, some even snatching food from plates and who would argue with them? Some militant Western Gulls were actively seeking out shiny cars to defecate on, revenge for loss of habitat one hopes. We also managed to find the odd California Gull in with the western mobs, including a bright bird in summer plumage.

Half Moon Bay seemed to be full of Western Grebes, literally, with a couple of hundred at least. I did manage to find one that I could call Clark`s, there were likely many more beyond reasonable scope distance. Along the coast singing White-crowned Sparrows are liberally dotted about and sound very different to ours in Quebec, surely a solid split at some point? I also saw both Cassin’s Auklet and Marbled Murrelet in the bay. eBird has yet to quiver over the records, it did further south in Monterey Bay but more on that later. During our stay in Half Moon Bay we didn’t see any other birders, strange.

The Savannah Sparrows we saw look and sound different to QC birds too, less clean and less buzzy.

From dawn to dusk patrolling groups of western form Brown Pelicans are passing this way and that. Every now and then there would be a fish shoal located and frenetic activity would ensue, attracting Brandt’s and Pelagic Cormorants, Common Murres, gulls and the aforementioned alcids to the to the feeding party. The events seemed short-lived, with birds moving off after ten minutes or so, perhaps when the fish ran out or the brighter ones swam off pronto.

As this is the first true post for the trip, here is the itinerary. Half Moon Bay, CA, two nights. Monterey, CA, three nights. Groveland, CA, one night – this site was chosen so we could visit Yosemite (busy) and to drive the Sierra range over to Nevada. Reno, NV, one night. Tucson, AZ, two nights (I know!), Oak Creek Canyon, AZ (Sedona), three nights – handy for the Grand Canyon. Anthem, AZ, one night then fly home. This was a bucket list trip for Sandra’s folks but I still managed to winkle 205 species out of the trip, 13 lifers, 20 ABA ticks.