Post #124 - West Coast Winter Cruise Ship Pelagic - Petrels and Albatrosses in record numbers! Duck Photos too!

Many folks have already heard of the tremendous pelagic successes of the most recent West Coast repositioning ('repo') cruise, this particular edition running from Los Angeles to Vancouver from Wednesday, November 29th to Saturday, December 2nd. To get right to the point, the birding was incredible, specifically along the Oregon Coast where we found record numbers of Laysan Albatrosses (40-50), Short-tailed Albatrosses (5), and Mottled Petrels (~200). Not to be forgotten were 8 Cook's Petrels, a nice bonus on top of our already strong haul. This post is meant as a complement to Post #65, a very lengthy recap of the spring Repo Cruise that I took in May of last year. As that post is filled with all sorts of helpful and advisory information, I will use this post to supplement that one.

Our Route

The general idea of a repositioning cruise is that the cruise company (Princess) needs to move ships around depending upon where they are needed each season. For example, our boat from last year's May trip was used for warm weather cruises all winter (Mexico, Hawaii) before being repositioned to Vancouver in spring for Alaskan cruises during the summer. The beauty of the repo cruise is that the boat makes no port stops, instead staying well offshore and following the continental shelf edge between the end points. With so much time in the deep water, birders have found these repo cruises a wonderful way to view pelagic birds, most specifically the Pterodroma petrels that have proven so difficult to find from more traditional, 8-, 10-, or 12-hour pelagic trips. As this video will show, the cruise ship is no longer a secret!

Me being a clown, as per usual

Hold on, hold on. If I went north (LA > VAN) last spring, wouldn't it make sense to go south (VAN > LA) this fall/winter, right? Yes, it would, but this was a special repo cruise, one that was repositioning the ship to Vancouver for painting, maintenance, and other upgrades. This is important as this late-Nov/early-Dec trip is unlikely to go every year. So, if you're looking into doing this exact trip next year, be advised that it might not run. There will most certainly be some form of southbound repo cruise in late fall (Sept/Oct), but, given that earlier season, that trip won't likely replicate the successes of this past week. 

This most recent repo cruise left LA on Wednesday, November 29th at 4pm. With the short days, we did little birding as it was dark by the time we left the harbor. At sunrise on the next day (Thursday), we found ourselves ~40-50 mils off Big Sur, and, in the course of the day, we made our way north along the shelf edge to reach central Sonoma County by nightfall (around 5:30pm). In that stretch, we had good numbers of Northern Fulmars, low numbers of Sooty Shearwaters, scattered alcids, a few Red Phalaropes, single numbers of Black-footed Albatrosses, and at least 2 very distant Laysan Albatrosses. On the whole it was a very slow day characterized by strong north winds and heavy seas. That night we traversed the remainder of the California Coast.

The sun rose just after we crossed into Oregon on Friday morning, and we immediately had more birds of every sort, most notably Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses. It wasn't long until a juvenile Short-tailed Albatross materialized, quickly buzzing the port side of the boat before quickly disappearing. I got on it very late, enough for a decent ID view but not enough for photos. After that the albatross floodgates opened. For the next few hours, Black-footeds and Laysans were in near constant view on the horizon. Midday we passed an active trawler that had loads albatrosses around it, including another 2 or 3 Short-taileds (all juveniles). Those gave much nicer views than the first (photos below). 

We found passed this (and only this) fishing boat. 

It was probably half a mile away. 

So yeah, most of the birds were very distant.

All of the photos are terrible quality due to the distance of the birds from the boat. I have chosen to show the full frame and the cropped image so that you can see what you can expect with 560mm of focal length (400 + 1.4x). I expect those folks at the very front of the ship will have much better pics of this Short-tailed Albatross as it moved away from the boat by the time I got on it.

Short-tailed Albatross (juvenile) record shot - full frame, uncropped

Cropped from above. Note chocolate color and huge, pink bill

Laysan Albatross record shot - full frame, uncropped

Cropped from above

The albatrosses ensured that everyone on the ship was stoked, but we still hadn't yet seen a single petrel. Most everyone was hoping for Mottled Petrel, and it was with great excitement that the first of those was spotted and called-out mid-afternoon. I missed that individual as I was on the wrong side of the ship and was understandably despondent about it. Laying on my own scope, I quickly spotted another as redemption. At that point, petrels appeared everywhere, and we had Mottleds in near constant view until we crossed into Washington right as darkness fell. Many of them gave great views as they arced up and down just in front of the ship. As mentioned, there were also single numbers of Cook's Petrels mixed in. 

Mottled Petrel (underside) record shot - full frame, uncropped

Cropped from above. Note stocky body, short wings,

black ulnar bars on underwing, gray belly.

Mottled Petrel (topside) record shot - full frame, uncropped

Cropped from above. Mostly gray with classic "M" 

pattern traced across wings.

Cook's Petrel (underside) record shot - full frame, uncropped

Cropped from above. Note cleaner underwing and more nimble, 

longer-winged form than Mottled.

OK, you get the idea; The birds were far away. But that's to be expected given the size of the ship and the fact that it doesn't slow down no matter what appears! Since the views are poor compared to a regular pelagic trip, the cruise ship won't at all replace those shorter outings. The cruise is really for those hardcore listers who want to tick tough species such as the Pterodroma petrels for their ABA lists. I had 32 Cook's, 18 Murphy's, and 2 Hawaiian in the spring and ~200 Mottled and 8 Cook's on this fall/winter leg. In comparison, I didn't see see a single petrel (besides fulmars) on the ~15 NorCal pelagics that I took this year. The cruise ship is the only way to go for these birds. There was actually a Red-legged Kittiwake called out on Friday, but only 1 or 2 people got onto it. I'm not sure if it made the official trip list or not. 

The list of marine mammals included Fur Seal, breaching Humpback Whales, Pacific White-sided Dolphin, Northern Right Whale Dolphin, Sperm Whale (I think), and a small pod (3-4) of Orcas not far from where we passed the fishing boat. I'm sure this mammal list is incomplete.

The cruise concluded when we pulled into Vancouver mid-morning on Saturday, December 2nd. So, we ended up with 2 full days of sea birding, the first boring and the second exciting. 

As I covered the layout of the ship, food, and other assorted cruise considerations in Post #65, I'll briefly touch on a couple of other considerations that people might find interesting/helpful.

Inside the boat. I avoided this except for boarding.....

Seasickness was - as far as I could tell - a non-issue on the trip. Some people wore ear patches but the ship really doesn't move that much. We had some long-period swell but nothing more. Interestingly, some people might find taking motion sickness pills near bedtime a good way to aid sleep. The ship is big but does pitch slowly if there is sufficient swell/wind.

Weather was quite chilly at times, particularly in the wind, but nothing that a decent parka wouldn't easily fend off. Interestingly, the weather on this fall trip was about equivalent to the last year's spring trip, a bit of a surprise given the time of year. The days were significantly shorter this time around, the light being usable from about 7am until 5pm (spring was more like 6am to 8pm). 

Sunset over the North Pacific

With upwards of 70 birders on board this time around, it did feel crowded at times, particularly when everyone was crammed onto the bow during the albatross and petrel madness on Friday. I have no idea how crowds will trend moving forward, but positioning is significantly more important on the cruise ship that it is on a traditional pelagic where it is easy for everyone to move to any point on the boat. If the wind permits, the bow is the place to be. If not, the sun angle dictates that the port/left side is better in the morning and the starboard/right side better in the afternoon - assuming you're going north; The opposite would be true going south. Wind on the Pacific Coast is almost always from the north or northwest.

Though it wasn't terribly rough on this run per se, the boat did move a bit slower than usual because of that long-period swell above referenced. This meant that we ported into Vancouver about 4 hours later than scheduled. I would highly suggest leaving a big buffer between the ship's scheduled arrival and your departing flight to allow for similarly unexpected/unplanned delays. Many people (myself included) actually stuck around Vancouver for the weekend, so that's a great option if you feel like doing some extra, terrestrial birding at cruise's conclusion. You've already made it that far, right? Winter birding around Boundary Bay is great. 

OK, that's it for now. If you like this sort of thing, you might want to 'follow' the blog so that you don't miss similar trip recaps moving forward. You can do that on the right hand side/column of the page as it appears in the WEB FORMAT on either your home computer or phone (sadly, you can't do it from the mobile device format on your phone). 

And since I made you put up with crappy photos for this whole entry, I'll leave you with a few decent shots from around Vancouver after the cruise. Enjoy!

***As always, click for higher resolution views***

Northern Pintail - Anus acuta

Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II on EOS 7D2

1/1250 at f/5.6, ISO 400, laying facedown in duck crap.

Northern Pintail - Anus acuta

Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II on EOS 7D2

1/2000 at f/5.6, ISO 400, laying facedown in duck crap.

Wood Duck - Aix sponsa

Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II on EOS 5D Mark IV
1/2500 at f/5.6, ISO 800

Wood Duck - Aix sponsa

Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II on EOS 7D Mark II
1/400 at f/8, ISO 1600

Post #120 - Pelagic Bird Photo Showcase and Pelagic Photography Tips/Tutorials

This weekend I had my final 3 of 12 fall pelagic birdwatching trips. All of these left from either Monterey or Half Moon Bay in California and split their time between inshore and offshore (i.e. off the continental shelf) waters. This was by far the most time I have ever spent on the water in such a small time; Needless to say both my birding and photography skills improved immensely. I am going to use this post to showcase some of the pelagic birds that I saw. Beyond that, I will discuss the photography logic and technique that I used to collect these images.

***Click on images for higher resolution views***

Sooty Shearwater - Ardenna grisea

Canon 500mm f/4 IS + 1.4x III on EOS 5D Mark IV

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 1600

Pink-footed Shearwater - Puffinus creatopus
Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II on EOS 7D Mark II

1/5000 at f/4, ISO 640

Let me start by stating something that is obvious to anyone who has ever given pelagic bird photography a try - it is really, really hard. Several factors combine to make pelagic bird photography about as hard as it gets.

1) Pelagic birds are almost always in flight and most of them fly really fast, so shooting them is really challenging. Sure, it's sometimes possible to collect shots of birds sitting on the water, but those frames will not do these amazing birds justice. Flight shots are required to show their elegant forms and aerial abilities! Pelagic photography is therefore synonymous with flight photography, and anything that you learn here should benefit more your terrestrial-based flight-work as well.

2) Pelagic birds don't generally want to come close to the boat, and, unlike on land, you have no individual ability to more closely approach the subject - unless you feel like going for a swim.

3) Unlike terrestrial photography, the photographer is moving in a pelagic setting, often on a heavily pitching boat. Keeping the subject centered, under the desired Auto-Focus (AF) point is very difficult; As a result, clipped wing-tips and totally empty frames are commonplace.

4) Pelagic photography gives the photographer zero control over lighting conditions. If the sun rises at 5:30am and the boat leaves at 8:30am, then you've already missed the best light. If you reach the shelf edge at noon, you'll be photographing deepwater birds in harsh, midday light. If it's cloudy, then most lenses aren't fast enough to properly stop the action and obtain sharp flight shots. Lastly, if the bird flies down the sunny side of the boat, forget about shooting into the sun; That's a complete waste of time. That's for record shots only.

5) You can only get out on the ocean on organized trips, so you have limited chances to get the shots you want.

Black-footed Albatross - Phoebastria nigripes

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II + 1.4x III on EOS 5D Mark IV

1/4000 at f/5.6, ISO 400

So, given all these difficulties how the heck does one get decent shots of such seemingly impossible targets? I am going to give two sets of tips, General and More Advanced. Everyone should employ the general tips, and those that want to learn a bit more can move onto the more advanced strategies that I present later. I am a Canon user, but this all doubles for other systems as well.

Scripps's Murrelet - Synthliboramphus scrippsi

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II + 1.4x III on EOS 5D Mark IV
1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 800

6 VERY GENERAL TIPS TO GET YOU STARTED

1) Put your camera in AI Servo mode. That is the mode for moving subjects. If you're in One Shot, you're going to have loads of pictures of blurry, flying turds. Canon has this silly hybrid AI Focus mode, but I avoid that as well. AI Servo is the only place to be for flight work (and 95% of other work as well). If you're camera is beeping as it focuses, you're in the wrong mode as the camera doesn't beep in AI Servo.

2) I use single point focus with 4 points of expansion for flight work. Single point works fine if you can keep the point on the bird, but that's easier said than done. Use as much expansion as you need. 

3) Shoot at the highest frame rate you can. This is done by putting your camera into Continous Shooting, the sort where you can hold the shutter down and take like a zillion pictures in a row. Also known as 'Spray and Pray' this is going to give you the most chances of getting the exact frame you want.

4) As a Canon user, I don't like all the autofocus case setting stuff that they've programmed into the 7D2 and the 5D4. I just use Case 1 and modify the settings to be Sensitivity -2, Accel/Decel 0, Switching 0. Sensitivity should always be at -2 and you can play around with the other 2 for yourself depending on what works best for you. I personally think people spend too much time playing with the settings and not enough time just getting better at quickly acquiring the subject and learning to track it efficiently. Practice trumps all.

5) If you don't want to shoot in Manual Mode, use Aperture Priority (AV) and always leave the lens wide open (smallest numerical f/ stop). For 95% of you, that will be f/5.6 using the Canon 100-400 IS 1 or 2 lens. Shutter Priority mode (TV) does not allow you to take full advantage of your lens as it sets the aperture based on what shutter speed you want. If you say you want 1/2000, it might select f/8. That's a waste if your lens can shoot at f/5.6 (which would cut you shutter by half, to 1/4000). Think instead about getting the fastest possible shutter speed by using the widest aperture. Pelagic birds will never be close enough that depth of field is a problem.

6) If it's sunny, you can try using a 1.4x teleconverter (TC) though your results will vary depending on which camera body you use; It will work best on 1Danything, 7D2 and 5D3/4. Adding a 1.4x TC to an f/5.6 lens doubles the number of pixels on the subject (which is good), but it also makes the lens f/8 and halves the amount of light hitting the sensor (which is not). If it's sunny, you've got plenty of light anyway, so go ahead and try the TC - assuming you have a good camera. But skip the TC on cloudy days unless your naked lens is f/2.8 or f/4. You simply won't be getting enough light to the sensor to make a sharp image. You'll just have a bigger, blurrier flying turd.

Cassin's Auklet - Ptychoramphus aleuticus

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II on EOS 7D Mark II
1/4000 at f/4, ISO 800

DISCUSSION OF MORE ADVANCED THEORY/STRATEGIES

Since pelagic birds fly so fast, it is critically important that you have a fast shutter speed so as to stop the action as perfectly (i.e. as sharply) as possible. If you look at all the photos in this post, all of them (save 1) were taken with a shutter speed of 1/2500 or faster. I wouldn't personally try to take a photo of a fast flying bird with anything slower than 1/1600. You may get lucky once in a while at 1/1600, but you should really be shooting much faster. My sharp frame with 1/1600 was the exception, not the rule. 

On sunny days, getting a fast shutter speed is not a problem. That is because there is plenty of ambient light, even moreso than on an equivalently sunny day on land as much more of the light is reflected by the water than it is by the land. So, the general strategy on sunny days is to open the lens all the way up and then dial in a shutter around 1/3200. Something around 1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 400 will work well as a starting point in mid-morning light, but individual exposures for each bird will vary greatly depending on whether it's white, gray, brown or black.

Problems really start to rear their head when there isn't as much ambient light. The best example of this is cloudy days, so let's start there. Very generally, there can be anywhere from 1-3 f/ stops LESS light available on cloudy days than on perfectly clear days. What does that mean? Look at these two photos of Pink-footed Shearwaters. That the were shot with different cameras and lenses doesn't matter, it's the settings that we're going to discuss.

Pink-footed Shearwater - Puffinus creatopus

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II +1.4x III on EOS 5D Mark IV

1/4000 at f/5.6, ISO 400

Pink-footed Shearwater - Puffinus creatopus

Canon 100-400mm f/5.6 IS II on EOS 7D Mark II

1/1600 at f/5.6, ISO 1600

These images are very similar except the first one was taken when it was sunny and the second when it was cloudy. Notably, the individual birds look almost identical. The first, sunny image was shot at 1/4000 at f/5.6, ISO 400. The second, cloudy image was shot at 1/1600 at f/5.6, ISO 1600. I don't like to shoot the 7D2 higher than ISO 1600, so 1/1600 was the fastest shutter I could achieve given the f/5.6 limitation of the 100-400 f/5.6 lens on that day. You can see that 1/1600 is 1.333 stops more light that the 1/4000 I used in the sunny image. I also needed 2 stops more ISO (1600 vs. 400) in the bottom image versus the top. So, there was about a 3-stop difference (3.33) in the amount of ambient light available in each instance, and I had to get the exposure correct on each day so as to accurately depict the bird in each condition. A similar comparison can be seen between the Northern Fulmar and Buller's Shearwater shown below. They are similar shades of gray and thus the exposures between the two species can be roughly compared. Look at the settings in the sunny versus cloudy conditions. Sunny skies generally let the shooter use ISO 400 or 800. Cloudy skies are going to necessitate ISO 1600 or higher, sometimes even with an f/4 lens. Remember, you can fix noise with editing software, but you can't do anything with an image that is blurry!

Northern Fulmar - Fulmarus glacialis

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II + 1.4x III on EOS 5D Mark IV

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 800

Buller's Shearwater - Puffinus bulleri

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II on EOS 7D Mark II

1/4000 at f/4, ISO 1600

I know all of this sounds very complicated, but these are the sorts of things you are going to need to think about as conditions change. Sure, you can just leave your camera in AV mode and let it select the correct exposure, but you won't learn anything in so doing. The camera is really smart, but not as smart as you - once you learn everything you need to know. If you shoot in AV all the time, you will eventually be limited by the camera. It's better to learn the exposure theory for yourself!

Buller's Shearwater - Puffinus bulleri

Canon 500mm f/4 IS on EOS 7D Mark II

1/4000 at f/4, ISO 1600

OK, something quick about exposure. Even under identical conditions, the correct exposure is going to vary bird to bird depending on its color; More light is needed to correctly expose dark birds than light birds, often several stops. What that means is that you kind of need to decide whether you're going to shoot light birds or dark birds unless you can very quickly change the settings as different species come into range. If you're set to shoot the dark back of a Sooty Shearwater and a Buller's Shearwater flashes you its brilliant white underside, you are going to saturate the whites in that shot as your shutter will be too comparatively slow/long. When you saturate the whites (or greatly underexpose the darks) you get nondescript blobs rather than nicely detailed images. You ideally want to be able to see individual feathers. The below shot is correctly exposed as you can see detail in both the light and dark feathers.

Pink-footed Shearwater - Puffinus creatopus

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II on EOS 7D2

1/2500 at f/4, ISO 1600

To aid on the overexposure end of things, you should activate the Highlight Alert feature on your DSLR. That will display overexposed areas of you image as blinking bits on your image review screen on the back of the camera. The idea is to take a few test shots so that you find an exposure that gives you a small amount of blinking bits but not more. At that point you need only worry about the lower, underexposed end of the image. Here is a short video that should help explain this.

Lastly, shooting in Manual Mode will help you learn all of this faster. Even in AV mode the camera is making its best guess at to the correct shutter speed, and very often it picks the wrong one. As far as pelagic photography is concerned, this most rears its head as a bird flies alternately against the sky and water; Though the exposure for a given subject is the same regardless of the background against which it is shot, the camera will generally tend to underexpose the subject against the lighter sky and overexpose it against the darker water. If you empirically determine the correct exposure for the subject that you want to shoot and dial it in manually, then the camera won't get fooled by the background. Yes, Spot Metering can help combat that problem, but it doesn't work well when keeping the AF point on the bird is difficult, like on a pitching boat.

Pink-footed Shearwater - Puffinus creatopus

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II + 1.4x III on EOS 5D Mark IV

1/4000 at f/5.6, ISO 800

Oh wait, one last thing! I find shearwaters and albatrosses the most obliging pelagic subjects. The are fairly willing to come somewhat close to the boat and they rarely directly overfly it (thankfully). Skuas are jaegers are the exact opposite. They are normally too far off, and when they do approach they usually fly too high overhead to make for interesting photos. I did get one decent chance on this skua though. This was an example of where I had to very quickly dial in some extra light to get detail on the very strongly shaded underside of the already dark wing. Note the light is 'terrible' as it is coming straight down. Shots against perfectly clear skies aren't nearly as interesting as those against water or those that included the horizon in the background, right?

South Polar Skua - Stercorarius maccormicki

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II + 1.4x III on EOS 5D Mark IV

1/4000 at f/5.6, ISO 800

OK, enough. That's a lot to digest. Please feel free to email me or leave a comment on the blog if things need clarification. I'll also be leading pelagic trips for both Alvaro's Adventures and Monterey Seabirds as this year rolls into next, so please come join me on those for birding and photography. I'd be happy to help you with whatever pelagic or more general photography questions you have.

Oh yeah, ABA seen #722, Guadalupe Murrelet!

I wanted one lifer this fall and this is the one that I got.

Record shot only. Super heavy crop and terrible light.

1 of 4 that we saw this past weekend.

The End 

(Sooty Shearwater)

Post #113 - Preparing for fall pelagic season! Come visit me in CA!

Sorry to be gone so long! I was in Southeastern Arizona all last week. I had a great time and will certainly post something about that trip once I have all my photos edited. So please stayed tuned. Following the blog will guarantee you never miss a thing (shameless self-promotion, I know)! OK, on with the show.....

Shorebird migration is now well underway here in the Bay Area, and soon other species will be following those migrational pioneers south. Included are pelagic species, species that are so highly oceanic they spend almost all of their non-nesting time far offshore. Albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, storm-petrels, jaegers, skuas, alcids, and phalaropes all fall into that pelagic category, and one can reasonably expect to see a nice cross section of these birds on any fall pelagic trip from the Northcentral California Coast (Monterey, Half Moon Bay, and Bodega). September and October are prime time, and there are a number of boat/tour operators that can get you offshore to experience the spectacle of pelagic migration. These include Alvaro's Adventures, Monterey Seabirds, and Shearwater Journeys. All of these operators have years of offshore experience and can get you onto to birds and marine mammals that you want to see. I will be acting as a spotter on a number of these trips, so, if you'd like to join me at any point, please see my schedule at the end of the post.

Sooty Shearwater - Ardenna grisea

Canon 400mm f/5.6 on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/1600 at f/8, ISO 400

The New Captain Pete in Half Moon Bay

A fairly typical boat for Central/Northern CA pelagics.

The SoCal boats are much bigger for those that have been on those.

Water temperatures have dropped compared to the previous few years, and there is a ton of food for both fish and birds out there right now. Reports from early season trips (i.e. summer) have been very positive, so the fall is shaping up to be really good! For those thinking about planning a trip to California for pelagics, I will offer a number of suggestions. 

First, pelagic trips are very popular, and spots on the various boats are limited. Make your reservations as early as possible to guarantee yourself a spot! 

Second, think about booking a number of trips if you are coming from far away. One pelagic trip is highly unlikely to show you all the cool things the ocean has to offer. Taking multiple trips will let you maximize what you can see for the cost of the same plane ticket (if you don't already live here!)

Third, if you book multiple trips, you might think about spacing them out a bit. While waters in Central California are usually not terribly rough, don't under estimate the energy you'll use birding and balancing yourself over the course of 8 to 12 hours. There are a lot of trips, so you could come for 6 days and schedule trips on only even days or odd days to give yourself a break between them. Fall pelagics don't usually get weathered out, but spacing them out a bit also buys you insurance in case the wind kicks up for a day or two. 

Fourth, the volume of bird tends to be highest in September but generally more rare birds are seen later in the season, notably October. Do remember that people who have seen a lot of pelagic rarities have taken A LOT of pelagics over the years. Weird/cool stuff can show up anytime, so these are just general suggestions. 

Lastly, plan ahead to avoid seasickness. Everyone's threshold is different, but take what steps you think you need to prevent your day from being ruined by barfing. Ear patches work well but require a prescription (I think), so deal with that beforehand. Dramamine works fine and should be taken 45-60 minutes prior to getting on the boat. Wrist bands are a scam/joke and should be avoided completely. Getting a good night's sleep before the trip, eating small amounts throughout the day, and drinking plenty of water will all help prevent illness. 

The Big and Badass Black-footed Albatross - Phoebastria nigripes

Canon 400mm f/5.6 on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 800

A stocky Northern Fulmar  - Fulmaris glacialis (light phase)

Canon 400mm f/5.6 on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/3200 at f/7.1, ISO 400

A note about pelagic photography - it is REALLY HARD! Pelagic birds move really fast and the boat is usually bouncing around, so getting close, sharp images of these speedsters is a challenge. You will need a fast shutter, something certainly less than or equal to 1/1600 with 1/2500 or 1/3200 being preferable. That's not an issue when it sunny but gets much tougher in cloudy conditions. Teleconverters can help in those bright, high contrast conditions but will greatly hinder your efforts to get flight shots when it's cloudy. So, you'll have to adjust based on the day and the conditions. Remember, you can always crank up your ISO to keep your shutter fast and fix the noise on a sharp, in-focus shot later. If a shot is out-of-focus or isn't sharp, they're ain't a thing you can do after the fact!

Fork-tailed Storm-petrel - Oceanodroma furcata

Canon 500mm f/4 IS on EOS 1D Mark IV

1/2000 at f/4, ISO 1600

So, hopefully this gives you at least a bit of info should you be thinking about coming to California for some pelagic birding. Fall is also the best time for terrestrial birding in California, so it would be easy to fill in some land birding around your schedule boat trips. Please feel free to contact me with any questions that you have, and I will do my best to point you in the right direction. It would be great to see some of you out on the water this fall!

My pelagic schedule for this fall - Remember these a just a few of the many tips offered!

Sat, August 26            10hr Half Moon Bay      Alvaro's Adventures

Sun, September 10     10hr Half Moon Bay       Alvaro's Adventures

Sat, September 16       10hr Half Moon Bay      Alvaro's Adventures

Sun, September 17      8hr Monterey                  Monterey Seabirds

Mon, September 18     12hr Monterey               Monterey Seabirds

Mon, September 25     12hr Monterey               Monterey Seabirds

Tues, September 26     8hr Monterey                 Monterey Seabirds

Sun, October 1             8hr Monterey                 Monterey Seabirds

Mon, October 2           12hr Monterey                Monterey Seabirds

Sat, October 7             10hr Half Moon Bay      Alvaro's Adventures

Sat, October 14           10hr Half Moon Bay      Alvaro's Adventures

Sun, October 15           8hr Monterey                 Monterey Seabirds

Mon, October 16         12hr Monterey                Monterey Seabirds

Post #110 - Birding the mythical Farallon Islands!

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Now on with the show!

The Farallon Islands are located 30 miles west of San Francisco in the otherwise open Pacific Ocean. They are just close enough to land to register but just distant enough to have their full mystery preserved. At just 0.16 square miles combined, they are tiny. Only on the clearest days - those precious few free of San Francisco's trademark fog - are the islands visible as a innocuous, nondescript dots on the distant horizon. It is only with a closer, generally boat-based inspection that their true character is revealed. A sense of rocky intimidation is experienced as one's craft bobs beneath the overhead cliffs, the constant swirl of whitewater at their bases only heightening that sensation. There is little to no vegetation to disguise their rugged character, and is completely possible to imagine the islands as the perfect setting for some shipwreck or survival epic, something alone the lines of "Lord of the Flies" meets "Naked and Afraid". It is no wonder that the Farallons hold such a special place in California birding lore. 

Red pin indicates the Farallon Islands.

Their mythical qualities aside, a very real 355 bird species have been eBirded from the Farallons. All of the expected West Coast species have been tallied, and beyond those all sorts of rarities have been found over the years. Eastern vagrants include Northern Gannet, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Worm-eating Warbler, Cape May Warbler, and Golden-winged Warbler. Pelagic rarities such as Short-tailed Albatross, Cook's Petrel, Hawaiian Petrel, Great Frigatebird, and Red-tailed Tropicbird have all materialized from the depths. The list of Asian vagrants is the most impressive, what with Eurasian Dotterel, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Little Stint, Ruff, Red-throated Pipit, Brown Shrike, Dusky Warbler, Arctic Warbler, Little Bunting, and Common Rosefinch checking-in over the years. The list of birds that have occurred on the Farallons is hardly to be believed. I mean how the hell does Northern Saw-whet Owl or Sage Thrasher make it out there?!?!? Sadly though, most of us won't ever set foot on the islands as they are protected as part of a National Marine Sanctuary; Only a lucky few researchers are afforded that most intimate of Farallon experiences!

The Farallons during my visit last weekend.

These are the Southern Farallons, by far the largest group.

Despite the restricted land access, anyone is welcome to enjoy the islands from a boat. The summer months are the best time to do this as the Farallons are the largest Pacific seabird colony south of Alaska. With upwards of a quarter million individuals, Common Murres dominate. Combing through their hoards, we also found good numbers of Pigeon Guillemots, Tufted Puffins, and Rhinoceros Auklets. Cassin's Auklets were particularly prevalent with nearly 500 individuals observed, many at very close range. Beyond alcids, we spotted Pelagic and Brandt's Cormorants, Western Gulls, and Black Oystercatchers. The light was really bad what with the fog and sea spray, but I did manage a few shots to show you what everything looked liked.

Common Murres through the fog 

More murres

Common Murre bringing food to nest

Common Murre chilling

Pigeon Guillemot doing the same

Tufted Puffin streaking by at some distance from the boat

Cassin's Auklet - best looks I've ever had at this shy species

Beyond the expected species, we were stoked to find one Brown Booby and one Blue-footed Booby perched high on the Farallon cliffs. These generally tropical birds were clearly holdovers from the northward push of warm water that ran up the West Coast from 2014 to 2016. That northward expansion of warm water brought with it not only increased numbers of boobies, but also more traditionally warm water pelagic species such as Black-vented Shearwaters and Craveri's Murrelets. As water temperatures have cooled to their historical averages (low- to mid-50s) in the past half year, the vast majority of those warm water birds have collapsed back to more southern and temperate latitudes, the two individual boobies we observed being very obvious exceptions. I suggest this article from NatGeo for those interested in reading a bit more about the recent influx of warm water in the North Pacific.

Adult Brown Booby

Adult Blue-footed Booby

Marine mammals were also in great abundance as California Sea Lions, Northern Fur Seals, and Steller's Sea Lions covered what available, rocky real estate they could find. With that veritable buffet, it's probably not surprising to hear the the Farallons are a great place to observe Great White Sharks, particularly in the fall when they are the most abundant. We saw several Humpback Whales, and I'm sure Orcas are occasionally present as well. So, even if birds aren't your thing, there's plenty of sea life and scenery to experience at the Farallons!

Northern Fur Seals with single Western Gull photobomber 

A hefty looking Steller's Sea Lion as 

identified by his golden coat. 

The particular boat trip that I took (Alvaro's Adventures), coupled the Farallons with some more traditional pelagic on the outgoing and return transits. Since it was still early in the season, shearwater numbers were low, but we did find a few Sooties and a few Pink-footed. Several Black-footed Albatrosses also showed nicely, but most exciting was a significant concentration/raft (50-70 individuals) of storm-petrels on the return leg. The flock was comprised of 3 species, mostly Ashy with maybe 10 Fork-tailed and a pair of Wilson's mixed in. This bodes well for the fall pelagic season as storm-petrels have been scarce on the Northern California Coast the last few, warm-water years.

The Farallons are quite close to the continental shelf. 

It's easy to swing into the deepwater in transit.

So there it is, a recap of my inaugural visit to the Farallon Islands. I will most certainly be back in the future, so maybe I can fill you in a bit more of Farallon history with that future post. If you're in the Bay Area, I highly suggest a visit. The boat trip itself is a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the mainland. I'm hoping to get back out there as soon as possible!

The end! 

Glad to find a use for this otherwise useless shot......