Date: 3/1/25 3:57 am
From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...>
Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] Bird Festival Pelagic Trip, Feb 28th: offshore Vega Gull
The San Diego pelagic trip on 28 Feb as part of the San Diego Bird Festival visited the Nine-Mile Bank and waters off La Jolla and Mission Bay. There was a surface chop all day but otherwise conditions were reasonable. The number and variety of seabirds offshore was about as low as we've ever seen. The clear surprise of the trip was the infamous second-cycle Vega Gull found in a feeding group of gulls and pelicans some 8 miles west of Mission Bay. It then followed the boast eastward for another 1.9 miles to 6.1 miles off Mission Bay. This is the second time this bird, present since Oct, has been found well offshore on a pelagic trip--the other time on Jan 1st some 14 miles west of Point Loma! Totals for the day, once we were offshore, were:
Surf Scoter  4
Pomarine Jaeger  1
Scripps's Murrelet  19
Rhinoceros Auklet  19
Bonaparte's Gull  43
Heermann's Gull  6
Western Gull  300
California Gull  90
(American) Herring Gull  2
"VEGA" GULL  1   (initially 32.792, -117.393)
Royal Tern  4
Pacific Loon  1
Pink-footed Shearwater  3
Pelagic Cormorant  1
Brandt's Cormorant  65
Double-crested Cormorant  4
Brown Pelican  65
Also:  Surfbird  30  (jetties)

--Paul Lehman, Dave Povey, Nancy Christensen, Alex Abela, Paul Mulholland, Nick Thorpe, San Diego


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The monthly meetings of San Diego Field Ornithologists (SDFO) are currently virtual, open only to members, at 6pm on the third Tuesday of every month.

Two notable on-line resources are available for San Diego birders: the San Diego County Bird Atlas by Phil Unitt (2004) - http://sdplantatlas.org/BirdAtlas/BirdPages.aspx ; and an update of notable records for San Diego County (2002–present), compiled by Paul Lehman - https://bvaudubon.org/birding-resources/ .
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