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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 1284975" data-attributes="member: 12449">Day Two -23 AugustDay of the Pelagic, my hopes were high. In front of me were 12 hours out to sea, from Monterey Bay to the offshore submarine canyons, hopefully chockablock full of seabirds and, with extreme luck, maybe even the ultra hoped-for Blue Whale (but I had to be realistic, only two trips had seen Blue Whales so far in 2008!).So there I was, 5 a.m. on the pier waiting our launch, huddled over a coffee listening to the weird wails and barks of the Californian Sealions given an unearthly rendition of a morning chorus, what a din! At 5.30, under the cover of darkness we slipped from the harbour and out to sea, the waiting game began, what would daylight bring?By the time the first hints of daylight lit the waters, we were already well offshore and birds were in our wake - phantom arcs of Sooty Shearwaters were our first sightings, thousands of them, streaming past, soon joined by exquisite Buller's Shearwaters, first the odd one, then a steady stream. Still in the gloom of dawn, a Humpback Whale appeared to our portside, a breakfast whale it was annouced.Aboard, a few were still sightly sleepy -that was about to change! At 7.30 a.m., the tannoy crackled "Ahead we have a Blue Whale". A ripple of excitement stirs the boat, all on board are wide awake and engaged! The tannoy crackles further "A correction, up ahead we have two Blue Whales". And so there were, the biggest creatures the world has ever seen, and now it was my turn to see them! Magical and the day had barely begun. Still Sooty Shearwaters swept past, Buller's Shearwaters becoming ever more common, but now another - the first of many Pink-footed Shearwaters! Stuff was coming thick and fast, birds everywhere. Next, a small pod of Risso's Dolphins puts in a brief appearance, then the first Rhinocerous Auklet, what a super monster!Elegant Terns scream overhead, thereafter to be heard throughout the day no matter how far offshore we went. Then the first Sabine's Gulls, a flock of perhaps 15 or so. Birds are just getting more and more numerous, all the shearwaters are ever-present, Sabine's Gulls every ten or fifteen minutes, then the skuas - Pomarine Skua being the first of the dayThe shout went out - "Albatross coming in, Black-footed Albatross to our right'. Ah, what a splendid bird, as it effortlessly swung past giving views you could only dream about. Then another and another! Albatross heaven, from that moment on, we had small numbers with us all day.Outward we went, the odd Common Guillemot also putting in an appearance, along with the dumpy Cassin's Auklets, dozens of the latter, another high on my 'hoped-for' list. Red-necked Phalaropes, till then just the occasional individual, began streaming by, flocks of ten or fifteen at a time, sometimes more, another Pomarine Skua buzzed the boat.Next came an unexpected new bird for me - a little dot appeared in our wake, landbird coming in! Though at least 20 km offshore, a passerine was approaching the boat, some kind of warbler. In it flitted, dancing over the waves, dodging the gulls, onto the boat it landed and there it was, a Black-throated Grey Warbler, not a bird I had expected to see out to sea! However, this little fellow then decided to take off again, out to sea once more - what a bad decision, dodging the gulls and waves seemed an endless game, one it looked certain to lose. A gull grabbed it, all seemed doomed, my first ever Black-throated Grey Warbler was hanging by its tail in the mouth of a gull, it was about to die! A groan went up by those aboard, then a small cheer, the gull dropped it! This little plucky thing then dodged a few more gulls and decided the boat was indeed a good place to be - it landed on one man's head and sat there, I presume thanking its lucky stars! Next guy grabs it, the bird is put in a bird bag, that little fellow got a free lift back to land for a safe release!It was barely mid-morning, but already I had seen far more than I, or anyone on board, had expected, what a super day. And still all the shearwaters, albatrosses and phalaropes continued to pass in impressive numbers. Our initial course had been westward but as the day progresses we took a more northerly heading that took us, I believe, above the deep underwater canyons, the latest new birds of the day being Northern Fulmers, several seen, all dark phase birds.  Another mammal to add to the list -Northern Fur Seal, three seen, all adopting a 'teapot' position!Thanks to the steady chum being chucked off the back, we keep a flock of Western Gulls at our stern all day, those in turn attracting the Black-footed Albatrosses in particular. We then began seeing Ashy Storm Petrels here and there, so the guys decided to lay down a fish oil slick to see what we could attract ...within minutes the first of three Wilson's Storm Petrels flew in to investigate. We sat on the slick for a spell, then just as we got underway, crossing over Año Nuevo Canyon, a mega of a boat appeared -  LAYSAN ALBATROSS right up our wake. To say there was a lot of commotion on the boat is an understatement, cameras rolled and hoots went out. Truly brilliant, this is a rarity in Californian waters during the summer.Eventually, as the Laysan Albatross wandered off, the excitement began to ebb ...not for long! When the leader on the boat starts jumping up and down with excitement, you just know something special is happening! He had scurried back to the stern, trying not to attract too much attention, but dribbling more cod liver oil over the side, tossing in a handful of anchovies too. A minute or two pass. Folks were watching him wondering what was going on and then…"There it is!"  "WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER"The light morph bird crossed our wake and swept parallel to the boat in its distinctive flight style, similar to a Buller's Shearwater with nary a wingbeat. Round and round, the bird performed fantastically, everyone getting chance to grab a few pictures of this extreme rarity to the USA. Fourth ever for California I believe, maybe fourth for the United States barring Hawaii! The word "awesome" gets repeated over and over, the leaders have smiles as broad as the Cheshire cat!Phew, could it get any better?! Southward we find some small storm petrel flocks on the water, mostly Ashy Storm Petrels again, but at least a half dozen Black Storm Petrels too. Eventually we found the 'big petrel flock' - a few hundred petrels in all, virtually all Ashy Storm Petrels, but a shout went up for Least Storm Petrel ...the bird was brief and most on board, including me, never got to see this one. Onward we went, somewhere along the line achieving the "Skua Slam" with all four possible species seen - three South Polar Skuas, two Long-tailed Skuas, several Pomarines and a few Arctic, all just added spice to an excellent day.Eventually it was time to start heading back - Cassin's Auklet's and Rhinoceros Auklets appeared in added abundance, Buller's Shearwaters in renewed numbers, but the stars on the way back were the mammals - playing with our boat, dolphins by the dozen - Dall's Porpoises, Pacific White-sided Dolphins and Northern Right Whale Dolphins, the latter a perculiar species with no dorsal fin! Brilliant they were too, you could lie on the front of the boat and see them a metre below your nose! Then more whales, a mother and calf Humpback Whale, the day was complete, an amazing event from start to finish.But not quite finished - chugging into harbour, with Calfornian Sealions everywhere and three Sea Otters in the kelp beds, we wrapped up the day withone Pacific Diver, several Pigeon Guillemots and Pelagic Cormorants (as well as the numerous Brant's and Double-crested Cormorants) off Cannery Row and a summering Harlequin Duck in the harbour!!!Brown Pelicans and Heermann's Gulls waved me off.</blockquote>

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