September 15 Garibaldi Pelagic -- another good day on the Pacific

A group of 16 birders (14 guests and 2 guides) met at the Garibaldi Marina on Sunday, September 15. Having turned in the waivers that Garibaldi Charters requires, we introduced the guides, discussed our birding plans for the day, and talked about strategies for getting the most out of our time on the ocean.
Having done this, we walked down to our boat, Alaska Sunrise, met Skipper Curtis and Deckhand Terry., had the mandatory safety talk, and then headed out. A lone Red-necked Phalaope as we left the marina area paddled around and was still in the same spot on our return. Tillamook Bay always has a lot of birds on the way out, including all three cormorants, gulls and pelicans, but the highlight for some was probably the Surbirds and turnstomes near the Coast Guard station. A rain squall in the bay did not do much to dampen the enthusiasm of our crew, although we did wonder if it was going to be a wet day -- fortunately we only had one more squall later, however we did have spray on our return.
The ocean was a little bumpy, but not too bad. We had loons and scoters as soon as we entered the ocean, and we started seeing Sooty Shearwaters very quickly. We had them with us most of the day, along with Short-tailed Shearwaters at different times. Good views of the latter species helped us solve this difficult and underrated identification problem. Jaegers proved a little elusive, with some birds being too distant or briefly viewed to be conclusively identified. We did have views of both Parasitic and Pomarine Jaegers, but South Polar Skuas gave us some brilliant views, including one bird which flew over the stern of the boat. We traveled out to 21 miles offshore, where we found a shrimping boat. We hung around nearby for a couple of hours, doing two chum stops and carefully checking out the birds following the shrimper, which attracted Pink-footed Shearwaters, Black-footed Albatross one, Laysan Albatross, Northern Fulmar, a few well-seen Short-tailed Shearwaters, two Rhino Auklets (!) and a blue shark. We did see most of the expected seabird species, but perhaps not going as far offshore kept us from seeing any Arctic Terns or Long-tailed Jaeger, and allowed us only a few Sabine's Gulls, along with low numbers of Buller Shearwaters. Alcid numbers were also lower than expected. Winds were expected to increase greatly as the afternoon progressed, and there was radio chatter about the Tillamook Bar conditions deteriorating, so the skipper made the prudent decision to head in a little early. Despite this, we had a good trip, and there were many smiling faces as we tied up to the dock at the end of the day.