GRANDE 16-17 AUG 2010 - Seabirding Live-Aboard Deep Water

* * www.SoCalBirding.com * * Participants on the Buena Vista Audubon's Aug 16-18 deep water pelagic aboard Grande off the coast of San Diego saw Skuas, tropicbirds, Long-tailed Jaegers, Sabine's Gulls, 4 species of Storm-Petrels and 4 amazingly awesome pods of seldom-seen-this-well Baird's Beaked Whales.

Monday we enjoyed looks at Fin Whales, a Brown Booby, Ashy, Least, Black and Storm-Petrels and both nominate and "Chapman's" Leach's Storm-Petrels.

A Double-crested Cormorant flew over a full 60 miles offshore!

More Baird's Beaked Whales shot up out of the water. We had great looks at their scratched backs and Bottlenose-Dolplin-type snouts.

Guadalupe Fur Seals! Steve got shots of "babies."

Tuesday pre-dawn: 150 Red-necked Phalaropes, and handful of Reds, and 6 Sabine's Gulls were circling the boat until first light.

At dawn we began traversing "Matt's Bank" (named after Matt Sadowski who first recommended exploring this western edge of the Bell Bank in 2009) we enjoyed good life from the beaked whales to Skua, Black-footed Albatross, Arctic Tern, Long-tailed Jaegers, Pacific White-sided Dolphin, Guadalupe Fur Seals, a Buller's Shearwater and two Tropicbirds. Matt's Bank drops off from 3000 feet to 6000 feet within a mile, and to 9000 feet within another few miles. Evidence of a food supply here is apparent in the species lists prepared by Jon Feenstra.

After a snack of fresh fruit and watermelon prepared by the chef, we were entertained by the U.S. Navy with an ear-splitting "Grande Sky Show" of an F15 at near-supersonic speeds looping, rolling. We waved and the pilot waved back a hello.

Many Mola Mola were seen. Mola is latin for "millstone" which accurately describes these bony, heavy, roundish, heavy fish that dwell a mile underwater, surfacing occasionally to lie on one side or the other to soak up some rays and warm up.

Tropicbirds were found both on the water and flying overhead. These deep late summer - early fall trips have a 95% success rate for finding tropicbirds.

After a great morning of birding and marine mammal watching, participants settled down after lunch in the warm sun for some afternoon naps..... enjoying the Zen of deep water birding.

The chef served up tasty breakfast burritos and fine dinners and delicious deserts. And beer.

We came across a couple of Blue Whales who had just "evacuated" some of their previous meals of krill. The water was a krill-like red. There was a failed effort to compose a song with the distinctive title of Blue Whale Poo.

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