April 19 & 26 – Deepwater Pelagic Birds and Mammals
Greetings Mendobirders –
Twenty-five to 30 enthusiastic folks joined captain Richard Thornton and Anchor Charters each for a half-day trip to Noyo Canyon on April 19th and full day trip to the canyon and beyond on the 26th.
The trip of the 19th was attended by 15 Pacific Union College students and their teachers, and we added 10-15 locals which made for a great mix. The ocean was flat and winds were south at 10 knots or so, increasing as the trip went on and a slow-moving frontal system approached, but we avoided the rain that had been forecast a few days prior. Out of the gate we got a great lesson in distinguishing Steller’s from California Sea Lions on the outermost “red-and-white” channel marker. Steller’s are larger and stockier, with a bear-like profile and blunt nose, whereas Californias have a longer sloped nose, more dog-like. Usually Steller’s are paler, more “blond” than Californias, but there was an unusually blond California next to a Steller’s (both adult females) so we all got lessons in identification caveats as well. Vocalizations also differ and we heard both, the circus-familiar arfs of the Californias and the deep-throated roar of the Steller’s, the latter how “sea lion” got its name (along with the thick neck of adult males), from the early Russian explorers (possibly including Steller himself) in Alaska.
Adult female Steller’s Sea Lion (center) with “blond” adult female California Sea Lion to its left on 19 April. Photo: Peter Pyle
The rest of the day was quite active. We followed a group of Humpbacks around for an hour or so, making sure we got photos of the fluke undersides for individual ID. While we were doing this, 1000s of Pacific Loons, some spectacular breeding-plumaged Common Loons, and 100s of Surf Scoters were headed north overhead, in long lines and scattered clumps. Spurred by the south winds before the front, it gave us satisfaction to see this avian migration spectacle so healthy.
Humpback fluke for individual ID; Bonaparte’s Gull and string of Surf Scoters as we headed out, Common Loon in breeding plumage on 19 April. Photos: Roger Adamson and Peter Pyle.
Over the canyon, an 8′ Salmon Shark was a highlight for many of the students, and shearwaters, gulls, alcids, and some Black-footed Albatrosses were everywhere. A healthy flock of gulls and other birds followed us around all morning. But we failed to find any deeper-water species, despite ‘friendly’ wind speeds that should have brought birds our way (see our April 4th report here). We surmised that northwest winds would be better for this than south winds.
Salmon Shark, Pigeon Guillemot, chum gull flock behind the boat including Black-footed Albatross, Sooty Shearwater, and Brown Pelican. Photos: Tim Bray, Roger Adamson, Peter Pyle.
Our rather constant, multivariate strategizing about routes and locations in the context of date, weather conditions, and recent bird reports, continued on the 26th. I’ve heard this pelagic-trip process described, rather accurately, as “chasing mirages,” but it is fun to do none-the less! On the 22nd, one or more “reposition trips” working up the coast reported dozens of Pterodroma petrels of three species, including Cook’s and Murphy’s Petrels 20-30 miles off the Mendocino coast. These are trips in which large cruise ships reposition from the Baja winter cruising season to the Inside Passage and Alaskan seasons in summer, and they allow birders aboard to set up scopes 100 feet or so above the water surface, spotting distant seabirds over a large ocean expanse surrounding the ships. For our trip, weather on the 26th seemed ideal for observing these, with 10-15 knot winds and fairly flat seas, as we’ve been going on and on about. So, we headed out with great anticipation that we’d be graced with great looks of multiple Pterodorma sallying off the stern, as happened with several of our trips last spring and summer.
As we left the harbor mouth, sea-surface temperatures were slightly above-average, 56° F, and, quite remarkably, stayed at 56° for the entire trip! Usually there is mixing of water temperatures and/or what we really hope for, a temperature break with warmer (“albacore”) water 15-20 miles off shore, but captain Richard’s Terrafin app showed no such breaks as far offshore as it could record. Before we even reached the outer buoy, inside the harbor channel, a Scripps’s Murrelet flushed from the side of the boat and landed on the water for most to see. This is the third spring SCMU we’ve seen out here, the others being one in this exact same spot exactly a year ago, on 26 Apr 2025 (see our report here), and one a mile or two out from here on 1 March 2026 (here), the first March record for Northern California prior to the 27th. What’s up with that? This species breeds only as far north as the Channel Islands, as far as known. So is this a wayward individual or might they be breeding on our offshore rocks?
Soon we started seeing scores of Sooty Shearwaters and this would be a theme of the trip. The horizon was dotted with them all day, all the way out to 25 miles from shore, and we also hit sitting flocks of 4000 and 1500 individuals, >15 miles from shore. “Scatter shooting,” where we fire away at the flock with our lenses and later see what is in it, is a time consuming but productive exercise, and in this case an odd shearwater as yet unidentified (see eBird Checklist here) and a possible Manx Shearwater (here) showed up.
Sooty Shearwater flock, Laysan Albatross in air and with Black-footed at “chum net,” Cocos Booby. Photos: Peter Pyle, Tim Bray, Catherine Keegan.
We have become quite skilled at distinguishing SOSH dots from Pterodroma dots (it’s all about the ascending and descending angles, not the height above water) but we did not even sniff any of the latter at maximum distance from shore. Even 3-4 Laysan Albatrosses and a nice second-cycle Cocos Booby that visited our chum flocks did not seem to suppress a little disappointment in the lack of Pterodroma, given location, date, weather, and the repo-trip reports. We did finally get one each of Cook’s and Murphy’s petrel on our way back in, 11 miles from shore, perhaps a close-to-shore distance record for the Cook’s off California (excepting beach-watch carcasses and true vagrants in the Salton Sea), but they were quick passes, seen well by only a few and missed by many.
Breeding-plumaged Red-necked Phalaropes headed north, adult Pomarine Jaeger, Sabine’s Gulls, Northern Fulmar. Photos: Roger Adamson, Tim Bray, and Peter Pyle.
Our musings of the day centered around the constant 56° F SST. This is California Current water and everything we saw was typical of this water mass, which can extend, variably, out to 20 miles or more depending on conditions. We surmised that the pelagic water mass needed for more Pterodorma petrels had been pushed offshore by the strong NW winds and upwelling that occurred from the 23rd to the 25th. Always something! So for today, the mirages we were chasing were skies full of wheeling Pterodroma out at our maximum distance, 25-30 miles from shore.
As always, however, there were other trip highlights. The highlight of the day for the writer came when we were some 15 miles out. We spotted a fishing boat traversing north, which we thought could be a trawler, but it was in transit. Richard pulled it up on his navigational app and it was the Western Flyer, transiting from Baja California to Oregon. The Western Flyer! I have been a huge Ed Ricketts fan since reading Steinbeck’s “Log from the Sea of Cortez” in my early 20s, and we have visited his lab a couple of times on Cannery Row, during infrequent tours, as well as paying homage to “The Great Tidepool” and his former residence in Pacific Grove. I couldn’t believe my eyes! The history of the Western Flyer can be found here.
Western Flyer with Laysan Albatross and Sooty Shearwater. Photos: Roger Adamson and Peter Pyle.
Before leaving the dock I asked how many would like to see birds and how many would like to see mammals. All but one raised their hand for birds, the inverse of that for mammals. I told the lone participant not to worry, that we’d stop for whales, but perhaps not for too long. He (and it turns out several others) got their wish when we encountered some “friendly” Humpbacks about 20 miles out. These are Humpbacks that, for whatever reason, have come to enjoy whale watching boats, surfacing within meters, looking participants in the eye, and sometimes saluting us with their odoriferous blows, which I’m sure they think we enjoy. So clear was the water out there that we could watch them go right under the boat! We also photographed a Guadalupe Fur Seal (ID confirmed by Sue Pemberton at California Academy of Sciences) and had many Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola), feeding on what we figured were a hundred-million or more By-the wind Sailors (Velella velella) that we observed on the day, many clumped up into dense masses, where we conjectured they were mating.
Friendly Humpback, Guadalupe Fur Seal, Mola mola eating Velella velella (otherwise known as a healthier form of Movella), a raft of Valella. Photos: Tim Bray, Peter Pyle, Roger Adamson.
Finally, even way out to sea, we spotted some logs covered with Pelagic Gooseneck Barnacles (Lepas anatifera) that have been floating around for a while. Another item covered with banacles was a plastic fishing buoy, which we retrieved, to do our teeny weeny part eliminating plastics from the ocean. We discovered an entire ecosystem of barnacle denizens, which we put into a bucket of seawater, including a pelagic nudibranch (Feathered Aeolid, Fiona pinnata) and Gulfweed Crabs (Planes minutus) that lives on these barnacles, and which iNat quickly identified for us, even 25 miles from shore! Such is technology these days.
J, Bennigfield with buoy covered with Gooseneck Barnacles, closeup of barnacles, participants pering into the seawater bucket, Feathered Aeolid, Gulweed Crab. Photos: Peter Pyle, John Tsortos, Caitlin Chock.
Our pelagic trips always give participants with like interests a chance to mingle, and on this trip “big days” in Mendocino County was a theme. These are days in which a group of birders try and tally as many species as possible in one day, often going midnight to midnight to include owls and other night-time birds. The day before the trip, a team of young birders (L. Kahle, J. Benningfield, E. Heisey, and M. Freeland) recorded 174 species, topping the record of 167 tallied by the veteran Mendocino birding guard aboard (including some of J. White, C. Vaughn, B. Keiffer, T. Bray, and R. Adamson). Pretty much all day, strategies, routes, hits, and misses were discussed with exhilaration while birds wheeled all around over the fresh blue seas.
Part of the veteran Mendocino Guard (left, from left to right, G. Tepke, J. White, C. Vaughn, B. Keiffer, and R. Adamson) and a mingling of the new and old guards (right, L Kahle and J Benningfield scanning and B. Keiffer and T. Bray sitting).
We have more full-day trips scheduled for spring and summer 2026, the next one for May 9th (see the 2026 calendar at https://noyopelagics.com/). There is always something for all on these trips; we never know what until we head out and over the deep blue to see what’s up on any given day.
Peter
