Trip Report. Noyo Pelagics, 15 & 17 August 2025
Around 25 participants went out with captain Richard Thornton of Anchor Charters and Noyo Pelagics for an all-day trip on August 15th and a half-day trip on the 17th. We used to fret about northwesterly winds, checking Windy.com two weeks in advance and worrying about every little indication of a blow. Perhaps this fretting was bad karma, resulting in our getting a fair share of NW blows on Noyo Pelagic’s trips. Our thinking changed on our May 24th trip, however, when 20+ knot winds prevented us from getting more than 6 miles from shore but at the same time blew in 17 Pterodroma petrels of three taxa unprecedentedly close to the California coast. After this trip, northwest winds became our friend.
And so it was on August 15th, again, the windiest day within a two week window around the date (even though we had stopped fretting). On both May 24th and August 15th, NW winds may have been our friends, but swell conditions decidedly were not, with mixed-direction swells creating bumpy lurchy rides. The good thing is that we have time, and so we don’t need to beat ourselves up too badly getting out to the good waters quickly, as they are so close to shore under these conditions.
And so it happened again when two Hawaiian Petrels buzzed us five miles from shore at nine in the morning on the 15th, first one, then a second one, before the first one had cleared the southern horizon. This added to a general jubilance for this trip, as we got out about 15 miles and were able to lay four slicks.
Hawaiian Petrel (left), Manx Shearwater (top right), juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger (bottom right) Photos: Roger Adamson and Tim Bray
We only found scattered Ashy and 1-2 Fork-tailed storm-petrels under these conditions, a bit disappointing after seeing so many storm-petrels of five species on our July trips. That was offset by seeing a Laysan Albatross, a Manx Shearwater, and all four jaeger/skuas (the “Skua Slam”) for the second time this year. For a third trip in a row, a South Polar Skua sallied over and close to the boat for 10 minutes, posing for our cameras. One of the Long-tailed Jaegers was a beautiful juvenile fresh from the Arctic breeding grounds. A Common Tern, two murrelets (almost certainly Scripps’s), a juvenile Sabine’s Gull, dozens of Black-footed Albatrosses, a few Humpback and a Blue Whale, and bow-riding White-sided Dolphins rounded out the day.
A particular interest for some participants is finding and photographing color-banded Albatrosses. These birds nest on several islands in the Northwestern Hawaiian Archipelago, and some also nest on Guadalupe Island about 150 miles off Ensenada, Baja California. Many are banded each year, either chicks just before fledging or adults on nests. With many excellent photographers on our trips, and many Albatrosses coming to our chum, we can often get readable photos and find out where and when these birds were banded. This adds to our appreciation for their amazing lives, and by reporting the bands to the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory, it adds to the scientific understanding as well.
Banded Laysan (left) and Black-footed (right) Albatrosses. Photos: Roger Adamson and Eric Heisey (LAAL band)
On the 15th we saw three color-banded birds. The Laysan Albatross sported a bright orange-red band coded 5K71. That format and color is used on Guadalupe Island, and if confirmed, it will be the fourth Guadalupe bird we have seen here. One of the Blackfooted had a dark red band with white letters (BC25), probably from Midway Island. The other Black-footed had a yellow band with black letters (AP29), most likely from Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals. That brings our count of banded Black-footed Albatrosses to 13 over the last three years. Eight were from the French Frigate Shoals; apparently that population is most fond of foraging here, often while feeding young 2,300 miles away. Three birds were banded on Midway Atoll and two on Laysan Island.
The pelagic zone can change daily, in radical ways, and we had a very different trip on the 17th, with calm seas and no wind. Fog came and went several times but we had excellent visibility much of the time. Marine mammals were a higher priority on this half-day trip and all participants were quite pleased when we found a congregation of Humpback Whales and Pacific White-sided Dolphins, frolicking, fin-slapping, spyhopping, lunge-feeding and breaching, the dolphins ‘bow-riding’ not only us but also the whales.
We estimated about 25 Humpbacks in this area, and were able to photograph tails and document several individuals. Within minutes, Katharina Audley of the Noyo Center for Marine Science uploaded photos into Happywhale.com, which can identify about 90% of the individual Humpback Whales in the north Pacific and provides the history of their sightings. Some of those we saw had previously been documented by friends and colleagues of Katharina’s in Mexico, who were instantly informed of the resighting.
Humpback Whales. Photos: Roger Adamson
As we approached the fray we had a weird-looking breach of an animal about 15 feet in
length, oddly dark gray-and-white along the sides, that just did not look right for any of our whales. After it never came back up, one observer who had seen breaching Great White Sharks before was fairly convinced this was one. White Sharks breach, like whales, perhaps to rid themselves of fish lice, copepods, or other hangers on, or perhaps they are communicating with each other in this way, practicing for mating season (which is probably mid-winter).
On our way back to shore a Blue Whale steamed south just off the harbor mouth sending up towering blows that looked like a coastal blowhole, but the captain knew there was no such blowhole there. Unfortunately it submerged for good in the area, before most could get on it.
The birders of the 17th were not disappointed either, as thousands of Sooty, Pink-footed, and Buller’s Shearwaters were swirling around the whales and dolphins, giving us constant opportunity to pick out one of the rarer species. One such appeared during review of photographs: a Short-tailed Shearwater sitting among 11 Buller’s and a nearby Sooty, which provided a great comparison of size, bill size, and head shape. Other bird highlights included 30 rafting Ashy Storm-Petrels that scattered to the seas before we could see if there were any other species among them. We had plenty of the usual Blackfooted Albatrosses sniffing about, a wayward Townsend’s Warbler, two Arctic Terns, a Sabine’s Gull, a distant Pomarine Jaeger and a confiding juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger. Not bad for a half-day trip!
Shearwaters: Buller’s(top center), Pink-footed (top right). Bottom: Short-tailed Shearwater with small bill (left), Buller’s and Sooty Shearwater with large bill (right) Photos: Tim Bray & Peter Pyle
The next Noyo Pelagics trips are scheduled for September 5th and 8th (half-day trips) and September 7th (full-day). We can expect to see many migrating seabirds and many cetaceans as well. You can sign up for these or any of our October and November trips at our calendar. Hope to see you out there!
Peter and Tim
Pacific White-sided Dolphins riding the bow. Photo: Katherine Keegan
