Pictures from the Pacific
Ed Corey and I recently wrapped up an excellent cruise ship run down the west coast of Canada and the US. We set sail from Vancouver, BC to Los Angeles, CA. We tallied in 59 species of bird including 13 species of tubenose including some great looks at Black-footed Albatross!
Our first day at sea saw some of our biggest numbers with over 2000 each for Pink-footed Shearwaters, Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels, Sabine's Gulls and twice as many Common Murres!
Also seen in unusual numbers was nearly 30 South Polar Skuas for the tour. Long-tailed, Pomarine and Parasitic Jaegers were all seen well and frequently, and we had some nice looks at Arctic Terns as well. Other than the Murres, alcids were a little hard to come by, but we did observe Cassin's and Rhinoceros Auklets, Marbled and Scripp's/Xantus Murrelets.
Good numbers of Red Phalaropes were observed on the first day out, with a switchover to Red Phalaropes further south. Also further south we got into decent Storm-Petrel diversity with decent amounts of Leach's and Black Stormies, and smaller numbers of Ashy, Least and Townsend's Storm-Petrel, the latter two being notable rarities. Some other goodies we encountered were Buller's and Flesh-footed Shearwaters, a few Hawaiian and Cook's Petrels (Cook's being particularly unseasonable for a fall cruise!), and on our final day at sea a young Nazca Booby made a few passes by the ship!
Of course, there are many other sea creatures to look for on these cruises and we had an incredible morning for Humpback Whale off Cape Flattery where a couple hundred of these behemoths had gathered to feed- It was amazing, I've never seen so many whales at once. There were pods as far as the eye could see! Other cetaceans we observed included Fin, Sei and Baird's Beaked Whales, Harbor and Dall's Porpoise, and Common and Right Whale Dolphins. Pinnipeds observed were Harbor Seal, Elephant Seal, Stellar's Sea Lion, California Sea Lion and Northern Fur Seal. Finally we had several sightings of interesting fish such as the giant Molas, Blue Sharks and hunting schools of Tuna.
All in all an amazing trip across the ocean. We will be doing this again next fall Sep 2027- come join us!