Four months ago I posted a part I about the pelagic birding trip and I promised a part II. The same week, I started an animal physiology class that ended up taking-up a majority of my time outside work. A month later I also started an internship at a native plant nursery with a local environmental restoration organization called Grassroots Ecology, which took away an additional eight hours a week. Long story short, I had no time for blogging until today, my first day off work, off school, and off internship. So let's see if I can even remember the rest of the details of that pelagic trip!
There were many instances of feeding frenzies where great numbers of shearwaters would gather.
Even though I was very nauseated, I was able to appreciate the speed and skill of the shearwaters as they zipped in and out and around the boat.
The shearwaters were not the only birds feeding, as there were usually at least a few gulls in the mix. And of course the albatrosses I shared in my last post, who were stiff competition for the gulls.
My first time seeing a rhino auklet was on last year's pelagic trip, but I did not get a very good look or photo. This year a combination of a better view and a better camera and lens helped me get a decent photo of this interesting looking bird.
Last year we saw a lot of dolphins, this year we saw more fish, including some sharks and ocean sunfish, the latter which are super cute in person.
Probably the most surprising bird that showed up on the trip was this female brown-headed cowbird.
She was flying along the boat for a while, and once spotted we all were watching and holding our breath hoping she would land. We were miles out from shore and cowbirds are definitely not pelagic birds and it was obvious this one was straining and close to exhaustion. Luckily she did land on the boat and stuck with us for a long time while she rested.
Later on in the trip another out-of-place bird was spotted flying alongside us. I did not get a photo, but I watched the drama. The bird was ID'd as a Lucy's warbler and the bird looked a lot more exhausted than the cowbird. In fact, the cowbird seemed to pick up on this because she chose to take off and fly with the warbler, apparently trying to lead the warbler to the boat. Of course, we don't really know the intention behind the cowbirds behavior, but it looked to all of us like she was trying to show the warbler a safe place to land. Unfortunately, the warbler did not land on our boat and we eventually lost sight and it is very likely the warbler succumbed to exhaustion over the ocean :( The cowbird returned to the safety of the boat, at least.
I'll end here, since there isn't much more to share since I did not take as many photos as I had planned. Still, a good trip overall because I got to see a lot of cool birds, and that was the point.