Date: 1/1/25 2:14 pm From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] San Diego half-day pelagic: Short-tailed Shearwater, alcids, slash gull
The annual New Year's Day SDFO half-day (5-hour) pelagic trip aboard "Legacy" from Mission Bay out to the Nine-Mile Bank took place under reasonably good sea and weather conditions. Highlights included a Short-tailed Shearwater 10 miles W of Point Loma, as well as another dark, Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwater close to the boat which we await the study of photos to see if it can be elevated above the slash category. A second-cycle type gull some 14.4 miles W of Point Loma was in the Herring/Vega category. Copious photos taken of it for further study. Good numbers of alcids (especially Rhinoceros) and the now almost-expected New Year's arrivals of Scipps's Murrelets. Interesting to see clear migrant groups of Pacific Loons still flying south. Totals for the half-day, once we were over a mile offshore are:
Brant 6
Surf Scoter 22
Pomarine Jaeger 9
Scripps's Murrelet 8
Cassin's Auklet 5
Rhinoceros Auklet 150
Bonaparte's Gull 5
Heermann's Gull 8
Western Gull 250
California Gull 55
Herring Gull 1
Herring/Vega Gull 1
Pacific Loon 50
Pink-footed Shearwater 3
Short-tailed Shearwater 1
Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwater 1
Black-vented Shearwater 50
Brandt's Cormorant 9
Brown Pelican 400
--Paul Lehman, Dave Povey, Bruce Rideout, and crew, San Diego
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