Date: 12/3/25 11:13 am From: <tgmiko...> via groups.io <tgmiko...> Subject: Re: [LACoBirds] Santa Monica Bay birds 12/2/25
Hi Jon,
Yes, I was on that Harbor Breeze boat Sunday a week ago with my cousin
because she had never seen a whale before so she had a fantastic time. I
enjoyed it also and saw the same birds at the same location that you
described, except of course, I did not see a Manx Shearwater. I did try to
study the birds to see if there was anything unusual but it was really hard
to do because they kept pointing the boat at these large mammals that swim
in the water and stupidly kept ignoring all of the cool birds. I was
surprised that we boarded that boat in Long Beach Harbor and drove all the
way over to Redondo Canyon. I was even more surprised that when I asked the
naturalist aboard the boat if we were at Redondo Canyon that he looked at
me with a blank look at his eyes and had no idea.
Tom
Tom Miko
Claremont 91711
909.241.3300
"We lose a rifle and get punished. They lose a war and get promoted."--Ben
Edwards
On Wed, Dec 3, 2025, 8:54 AM Jonathan Feenstra via groups.io <feenstra=
<alumni.caltech.edu...> wrote:
> LA Birders:
>
> I spent part of yesterday on a private boat doing some
> whale-watching/birding around the Santa Monica Bay.
>
> There were two spectacular feeding frenzies of perhaps 500 each
> Black-vented Shearwaters and Brown Pelicans with lesser numbers of gulls
> (mostly Heermann's and California), a few Pink-footed Shearwaters,
> Bonaparte's Gulls, and Pomarine Jaegers. There were also about 10 humpback
> whales, a minke whale, and hundreds, if not thousands, of common dolphin.
> The first frenzy was at the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon at about 10AM and
> the second was at the mouth of Redondo Canyon at about 2PM. It's possible
> that many of the animals were the same, since it looked like they were
> moving south from Santa Monica Canyon as we were leaving. The main parts of
> both canyons were pretty dead.
>
> There was a Manx Shearwater on the top of the 270 Bank with a flock of
> about 100 Black-vented Shearwaters and a couple of Pink-foots.
>
> It was nice to see flocks of Black-vented Shearwaters again since they've
> basically been absent from the Santa Monica Bay for the past couple of
> years, though 1000 is still down from the 10,000 that we often find.
>
> Absent were Northern Fulmars, which I had seen both on my last time out on
> the Bay as well as from Leo Carrillo back in October. A Common Murre was
> the only alcid I encountered.
>
> I saw the Harbor Breeze whale watch boat with the feeding frenzy at the
> mouth of Redondo Canyon, so it looks like they're making the trip around
> the point from San Pedro, if anyone wants to try that route.
>
> Jon Feenstra
> Pasadena
>
>
>
