Date: 5/11/25 8:16 pm From: Tim Bray via groups.io <tbray...> Subject: [Mendobirds] Another Short-tailed Albatross
11 May 2025 - Another amazing Noyo Pelagics trip offshore today. About
25 miles out we got into amazing numbers of Murphy's Petrels; I am not
sure what the official total will be but I estimate at least 50. Often
we had multiple birds in view at one time, and many of them diverted
from their flight path - evidently smelling our fish oil and chum - to
come right to the boat. Some flew right over our heads and one person
got a "selfie" with a Murphy's Petrel.
Before we had quite tired of that spectacle, a Short-tailed Albatross
soared in and joined the flock of 30+ Black-footed enjoying our chum.
This is the third consecutive trip in the last two weeks with
Short-tailed Albatross, and remarkably, they were three different birds.
Both previous birds had readable color bands, but this bird only had a
metal band. Like the one we saw two days ago, this bird stayed with the
boat for some time, following us in until the chum ran out.
The other noteworthy bird was a South Polar Skua that flew right over
us before attacking a Gull that presumably had some of our chum. Oddly
it did not return, even though we had lots of potential victims in our
wake. This is quite early for this species in our waters.
Peter will have a full report but asked me to post here about the
exceptional sightings. The next scheduled trip is May 24... sign up
here: https://noyopelagics.com/
