Pelagic 2
Fifteen years ago I took my firs pelagic birding trip; I was seasick almost the whole time but was still amazed at the birds we saw, especially the beautiful Sabine’s Gull, which I had never heard of. There were also good looks at many other species, particularly Phalaropes, as we cruised along the Continental Shelf line. So I thought I would try again, this time armed with a scopalomine patch, when I got a notice from SB Audubon of a pelagic outing. Unfortunately, the seasick trip was a lot more fun.
For starters, the first trip departed Santa Barbara Harbor, whereas yesterday’s cruise left from Ventura and was a tag-on to Island Packers’ regular ferry ride for day trippers to Santa Cruz. Nevertheless the 45 birders on board had the boat for seven hours in between drop-off and pickup at Scorpion Harbor. What I hadn’t focused on, however, was the goal of this trip: to see the Booby colony on Sutile Island, which was hours of open water away from any land, or birds. Now, it’s pretty neat that Boobys have come this far north, but once you’ve seen them sitting on this big rock, there’s not much more to the experience, especially as we were a couple hundred yards away from the cliffside, and my binoculars couldn’t bring me close enough to appreciate the view of any individual. The big goal, it turns out, was finding a Blue-footed Booby amid the 100+ Brown Boobys. Our expert spotter spotted one, and was able to describe its location well enough that I could pick it out. But at that distance, it looked no different from the surrounding Brown Boobys; and when you’ve practically stepped on them in the Galapagos the identification was not exciting.
Which gets me to the main problem for me, something I’ve experienced on other birding trips (although usually assuaged by having Gary Strandemo with me): Listing. For the leaders and I don’t know how many others in our group, the larger goal was seeing how many different species you could add to your personal lists (and the leader called out each time we moved from Santa Barbara County to Ventura County for those compiling county lists). There was very little opportunity to actually watch birds. Instead, it was “There’s a Pigeon Guillemot, flying left to right” – check that box. The only birds that sat still long enough or flew close enough for me to feel I could identify them were a gaggle of terns perched on a kelp raft, and even then our leader said he would have to look at the pictures later to determine if any were the sought-after Arctic Terns. Not surprisingly, ocean birds are not colored and the distinctions among various Murrelets, Shearwaters, Storm Petrels and Jaegers are slight – too slight for a first-time observer to feel any confidence in identification. And most of them flew away as soon as we spotted them. In short, I don’t feel I could identify a single species based on this trip. And most of the “sightings” were of a dull-colored bird flying away, separated by 20 minutes or more of open water. A 9-1/2- hour boat trip that was a waste of a day. And unfortunately, probably the end of pelagic birding for me.