August 25 Pelagic -- more Laysans and Short-taileds, full list

Oregon Pelagic Tours had another very successful pelagic on Saturday, August 25. Here is the complete trip report of our 12 hour pelagic out of Newport on the Enterprise, with Skipper Dave DeBelloy.  Route: Birding the bay, out to draggers 31 miles out, out to 50 miles and 1000 fathoms, cruising deep water, and return.  Excellent weather, perhaps even too little wind at deepwater chum stop. Guides: Tim Shelmerdine, Shawneen Finnegan, David Mandell, Russ Namitz.

All birds, including bay

Surf Scoter 7                                                               Northern Shoveler 5

American Wigeon 2                                                    Northern Pintail  8

Semipalmated Plover 1                                              Ruddy Turnstone 1

Western Sandpiper 6                                                  Red-necked Phalarope 11

Red Phalarope 55                                                       Wandering Tattler 1

Pomarine Jaeger 3                                                      Parasitic Jaeger 1

Long-tailed Jaeger 10                                                  jaeger (sp.?) 4 

Common Murre 132                                                     Pigeon Guillemot 7

Marbled Murrelet 2                                                      Cassin’s Auklet 9

Rhinoceros Auklet 24                                                   Sabine’s Gull 16

Heermann’s Gull 3                                                        Western Gull 169

California Gull 227                                                        Western x Glaucous-winged Gull 2

Common/Arctic Tern 2                                                 Laysan Albatross 3          

Black-footed Albatross 711                                           Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 82

Northern Fulmar 640                                                     Pink-footed Shearwater 266

Buller’s Shearwater 52                                                  Sooty Shearwater 42

Short-tailed Shearwater 2                                             Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwater 3

Brandt’s Cormorant 98                                                  Pelagic Cormorant 50   

Double-crested Cormorant 90                                      Brown Pelican 11

Great Blue Heron 2                                                       Turkey Vulture 3

Peregrine Falcon 1                                       

Other fauna

Gray whale 1                                                                    humpback whale 2

Harbor porpoise 2                                                            Dall’s porpoise 4

Pacific white-sided dolphin 80                                        northern fur seal 13

Steller’s sea lion 12                                                          California sea lion 8

Harbor seal 1                                                                     blue shark 30

August 12 Pelagic -- Sightings

8 hour pelagic out of Newport on the Enterprise, with Skipper Dave DeBelloy.  Birding the bay, out to draggers 30 miles out, out to 35 miles and return.  Guides: Tim Shelmerdine, Russ Namitz, Bob Archer. Huge flocks of birds around fishing vessels.

All birds, including bay: 

Surf Scoter 1                                                     Red-necked Grebe 1

Rock Pigeon 5                                                   Red-necked Phalarope 12

Red Phalarope 171                                           Red-necked/Red Phalarope 150

South Polar Skua 1                                           Pomarine Jaeger 2

Pomarine/Parasitic Jaeger 1                             Long-tailed Jaeger 1

Common Murre 226                                          Pigeon Guillemot 55

Marbled Murrelet 8                                           Cassin’s Auklet 3

Rhinoceros Auklet 5                                         Sabine’s Gull 6

Heermann’s Gull 2                                            Western Gull 86

California Gull 170                                            Glaucous-winged Gull 2

Arctic Tern 2                                                      Common/Arctic Tern 2

Common Loon 1                                                LAYSAN ALBATROSS 2

Black-footed Albatross 865                              Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 517

Northern Fulmar 1575                                      Pink-footed Shearwater 992                       

FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER 1              Buller’s Shearwater 22  

Sooty Shearwater 41                                         SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER 4

Brandt’s Cormorant 70                                     Pelagic Cormorant 62     

Double-crested Cormorant 75                          Brown Pelican 10

Cliff Swallow 2                                                                                                                                        

Other fauna:

Gray whale 1                                                      humpback whale 1

Harbor porpoise 2                                              Steller’s sea lion 6

California sea lion 8        

August 12 Pelagic -- 2 albatross and 5 shearwater species!

What a way to begin our fall season!  Our 8 hour pelagic out of Newport encountered good weather and ocean conditions and 1000's of birds. As we typically do, we slowly birded the bay after leaving the dock, then turned south looking for Marbled Murrelets.  The murrelets were present, but a bit difficult to see, although good numbers of harbor porpoise and two gray whales, as well as our first Pink-footed and Buller's Shearwaters, did a lot to make up for this.  We headed offshore, finding flocks of phalarope (mostly Red) and other species on the way.  Our skipper, Dave DeBelloy of the Enterprise (Newport Tradewinds) find us draggers and shrimpers offshore, and we had an incredible day with over 700 Black-footed Albatross, at least 2 Laysans, Northern Fulmar (many, unusual for August),  Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels (100's), 1South Polar Skua, Pomarine and Long-tailed Jaegers, Sabine's Gulls, Rhinoceros and Cassin's (few) Auklets and the following shearwaters made our day: Sooty, Pink-footed, Buller's, Flesh-footed (1, not seen by all) and Short-tailed (4).  This was an outstanding day, and we had a boat full of happy passengers.