June 14, 2026 – Deepwater Pelagic Birds And Mammals

We had another great Noyo Pelagics trip on June 14th, with close to 30 participants joining Richard Thornton and Anchor Charters for a pleasant day at sea. Unlike several of our past trips, the forecast was for calm winds and flat seas. I’m sure many were relieved at this, while others were dismayed. As we’ve learned the hard way, the worse the conditions are for humans, the better the birding! But we got lucky, resulting in a trip that was the best of both worlds.

We motored straight on out through Noyo Canyon and over the Vizcaino Knoll, some 27 miles out (see the eBird Trip Report for the route map, and our April 4th report for more on Vizcaino). It was fairly low overcast at first and, as is typical of pelagic trips, it took a bit to warm things up, both literally and biologically…there was a fairly even cline in sea surface temperatures from 52.5° F at the harbor to about 56° F at our farthest offshore point. A couple of fur seals were of mild interest, one Guadalupe and one Northern, as it turned out from later photo review. Up ahead there was an apparent derelict Coast Guard “can” buoy, those ones that are conical, tapered, and flat topped, riding 3-4 feet out of the water. But it turned out to be a humongous male Elephant Seal! It seemed to be riding very high, the color seemed pale, and the nose big and bulbous, so we entertained an ID of  Southern Elephant Seal of the Antarctic region (yes, anything is possible on pelagic trips). We sent photos to Sue Pemberton of California Academy of Sciences and her response:

“This looks like a Northern. The Southerns have a proboscis that looks like someone plopped a roast on the front of their face and it’s a little smoother. Also, their nares seems to be more \ / vs NESE’s | |. Here is an iNat observation of what I’m describing. That being said, it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing some of the southern vagrants off the US coast. There are multiple observations on iNat of different individuals, likely sub-ad males, in the northern-most part of the Gulf of California. All they need to do is stay a little west of Baja to get to us. I think it was Pacific Marine Mammal Center that posted a photo from a whale watching trip that appeared to show a Southern off the coast of SoCal few years ago. I’m not sure it was substantiated but that’s what they called it.”

Always something to learn on these trips, and to anticipate for future ones!

The Northern Elephant Seal brought us some luck as birds started picking up around then. Hundreds of shearwaters, multiple Black-footed Albatross, a couple of Laysans, a Tufted Puffin. A pair of Scripps’s Murrelets. Importantly, a slight breeze was slowly picking up! Our first Murphy’s Petrel showed up when we were about 11 miles out, something we never can get blasé about given their ultimateness (see our 30 May trip report for more on these), even though we figured they have become about as regular in April-June (today’s conservative tally was 23) as are Buller’s Shearwaters in August-October. Just something about that arching W on the horizon… Westward we went, seeing more of all of the above, and putting out slicks and chum for close looks of everything. A small pod of Risso’s Dolphins sauntered by. The breeze slowly continued to pick up! At one point a Murphy’s buzzed the folks on the bow so closely that they could have reached out and scratched its back.

Laysan Albatrosses put on a show, including chasing Black-foots and Pink-footed Shearwaters for rockfish parts we had tossed over as chum. Photos: Peter Pyle.

Shortly before 11:00 a Pterodroma came in that looked like a Murphy’s. Logan Kahle shouted “get on this bird, it has white underparts!”. Many of us just started clicking away, not appreciating it too much but being sure we documented every feather, which we did. Logan was insistent that it was identical to a Murphy’s except for the underparts while some of us tried to stretch it into something more exciting: “the back was too brown, the bill was a bit thin, maybe it’s a hybrid with a Brown Booby…”. But in the end there are no alternatives but a bleached-bellied Murphy’s. (As an aside, the business-person took a hold of the writer on a few occasions this trip, “possible Southern Elephant Seal!”…”one of the Scripps’s may have been a Craveri’s!”…”I don’t think we can write this off as just a Murphy’s…!” but due diligence restored rational realty, something we all need to practice as best we can.)

“White-bellied” Murphy’s Petrel! Photos: Eric Heisey.

We were not even off the boat when theories began to fly about the appearance of this bird. Close inspection of the feathering indicates that the white feathers are very worn, sun-bleached as we call it when looking at first-year gulls in May-June. But why do they contrast so starkly with the bird’s hood? Many tubenoses seem to have darker or more glossy hoods than lower underparts, and it could be that there are two feather tracts involved that act independently. Indeed, it appears that molt of the underpart feathers may have been skipped for a year or even two. The primaries were fresh, dusky, broad, and showed a distal freshness cline reflecting molt sequence, so these had molted up north this winter, as is typical of Murphy’s. Perhaps the underpart feathers were still juvenile, anomalously retained for the first molt. Another theory is that infesting feather mites or other critters may have chewed down these feathers on a breeding bird, which can happen with tubenoses, or that it nested in a’a’ lava rocks to this effect. Whatever the case, sun-bleaching is likely part of the equation. Just ask the white Northern Fulmars that hung with us for most of the day. Most observers assume these are white-morph birds but, looking more critically, they are dark-morph birds in which the feathers have bleached nearly completely to white! Solar exposure is feathers’ worst enemy, and often shapes how and when birds molt.

The rest of the day glided along just fine. The unexpected species of the day was Ancient Murrelet, which Tim was able to barely get ID’able photos if two headed north. A South Polar Skua. More Scripps’s Murrlets including a couple of very confiding individuals, for this species. On the way back in we bumped into 4-5 feeding Humpback Whales, dozens of Pacific White-sided Dolphins, at least one Northern Right Whale Dolphin, and 100s of swirling shearwaters and other birds. Looking off the bow, in the crystal blue water, 1000s of shimmering bait fish were the cause of all the commotion. Pacific Saury seems most likely. On the way back in flat glassy seas returned again, allowing a fast ride to port though big flocks of sitting shearwaters and feeding Cassin’s Auklets and Common Murres. All participants were enthusiastically abuzz with the day. One thing we learned on this trip re petrels, albatrosses, and the like: a breeze of 5-8 knots is infinitely better than no breeze at all!

Bleached dark-morph Northern Fulmar (note the color of the freshly molted feathers), confiding Scripps’s Murrelets (ID confirmed by dark lores and white underwing coverts), whale-dolphin feeding frenzy. Photos: Tim Bray and Peter Pyle.

We are recruiting heavily now to make our next trip, June 26th, get enough sign-ups to make it worth the trip (over what the captain can make on a summer day of fishing). Please consider joining us! The (very) early forecast is for sea conditions similar to those of this trip.

Peter