Date: 5/4/25 10:51 am From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] offshore San Diego seabirds (including repo cruises)
First off, this morning (Sunday) at the tail end of the latest late-season quasi-storm, several of us at seawatch in La Lolla had one breeding-plumaged Red Phalarope, 360 Red-necked Phalaropes, and one of those very-rare-in 2025 Black-vented Shearwaters! But not much else.
If folks have been noticing some rare pelagic species reported off San Diego the past ten days and are wondering who is getting offshore here, there have been three separate Holland America "repositioning" cruises out of San Diego heading north with plenty of birders aboard each of them. But the first trip, with San Diego (and Los Angeles) reports of a Laysan Albatross and hundreds of Red Phalaropes was actually up to five or so miles inside Mexican waters at the time. It seems as though eBird has problems properly designating whose waters one is in in this border region of Baja/San Diego/Los Angeles. The third in this series of cruiseships departed here yesterday (Saturday) and had a Black-footed Albatross closer to shore than usual, about 7 miles off Point Loma.
These spring repo cruises are a great way to see Hawaiian, Murphy's, and Cook's Petrels, and Laysan Albatross, somewhere between Central California and southern Washington, often in good numbers. And in comfort. But I will also add that there are lots of birders aboard with little West Coast pelagic experience, very very eager to see these birds, and who haven't had time to learn and "equilibrate" their pelagic skills while on a cruise ship--so there are a fair number of erroneous reports as well. Such proper equilibration of one's pelagic skills often takes an hour or two of three while on a regular pelagic trip as well.
--Paul Lehman, San Diego
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