Date: 8/18/25 5:46 pm From: Tim Bray via groups.io <tbray...> Subject: Re: [Mendobirds] August Pelagics
From Peter Pyle, with a bit from me about the banded Albatrosses:
Around 25 participants went out with captain Richard Thornton of Anchor
Charters (https://anchorcharterboats.com/) and Noyo Pelagics
(https://noyopelagics.com/) 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 Pelagics 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.
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. We only found scattered Ashy and 1-2
Fork-tailed storm-petrels under these conditions, a bit disappointing
after seeing many storm-petrels 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.
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. Unfortunately it is difficult to
obtain information from the researchers doing the banding there.
One of the Black-footed had a dark red band with white letters (BC25);
that bird was banded as an adult in 2019 on Midway Island, where it
breeds. The other Black-footed had a yellow band with black letters
(AP29) and was banded as a chick in 2008 on 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,
spy-hopping, 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.
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 Black-footed 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!
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 at
https://noyopelagics.com/#calendar. Hope to see you out there!
Peter and Tim
