Jan. 26, 2014 - West Coast Trip - Seabirds
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During our west coast trip last fall, I went on an all-day pelagic birding trip. That means going out on the ocean to see birds that can’t usually be seen from shore. Shearwater Journeys is the birding company that ran the trip and we went out from Monterey, California. One of the birds we saw was a Black-footed Albatross.
The Black-footed Albatross is one of the smaller species of Albatross. Even so, it is 32 inches long and has a wing span of 70-80 inches. With these long, thin wings, it can glide on the wind for hours at a time without flapping its wings. Most of its time is spent on the open ocean. The only time it is found on land is during nesting season.
AlbatrossBlackfootedflightShearwaterPelagicTripMonterey20131025
We also saw Northern Fulmars on the pelagic trip. At 19 inches long, with a wingspan of 42 inches, they are noticeably smaller than Albatrosses. They fly very fast with quick wing beats and also do a lot of gliding. This is a light colored fulmar.
Here’s a dark version of a Northern Fulmar. Fulmars often follow ships and eat garbage that is discarded from on board. Our boat crew tossed out a nearly constant supply of fish pieces from the back of the boat. This is called chumming and that’s what attracted the birds.
Shearwaters are wide-ranging world travelers. This is a Buller’s Shearwater. The only known nesting area for these birds is on some islands near New Zealand. In May, at the end of their nesting season, Buller’s Shearwaters disperse as far as Japan and the coast of Alaska. By September, some of them have already returned to New Zealand. They are 16 inches long with a 38-inch wingspan.
Short-tailed Shearwaters are another long-range migrant. They are the same size as Buller’s Shearwaters and they nest from September to April around Australia. They travel across the Pacific Ocean and spend the summer near Alaska. The birds we saw might have been on their way back to Australia for the nesting season. However, they don’t nest until they are 5-8 years old, so these birds might stay off the California coast and not return to Australia.
The star of the pelagic trip was this South Polar Skua. True to its name, it nests along the Antarctic shore. When nesting season is over, it travels widely over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This was a rare sighting because Skuas are often much farther out on the ocean. They do catch fish for themselves but they are also very aggressive in stealing food from other birds. They have been known to use their bill to grab another bird and shake the bird until it drops the food item it’s carrying. You could say they are the bully of the open ocean. They are 21 inches long with a 53-inch wingspan.
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