Well, unlike most of the earlier trips this year, the pelagic trip from San Diego on October 22, 2018 lacked exciting rarities. But, I guess, if rarities occurred on every trip, they soon wouldn't be rarities, would they?
But the trip was unique in its own way.
We loaded onto the boat about 6:00 am. We started out in fairly heavy fog in the bay. That made for some interesting sunrise pictures.
Once offshore it quickly became lighter and the fog less dense. So it became possible to get the first few usable bird photos.
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| Juvenile Heermann's Gull. |
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| Black-vented Shearwater |
Flocks of Black-vented Shearwaters were diving into the water chasing bait fish chased to the surface by tuna.
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| Black-vented Shearwaters |
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| California Gull chasing bait fish forced to the surface. |
Later in the morning as we moved farther offshore we left the larger number of birds. Sporadic sightings of Cassin's Auklets happened throughout the day, some eventually closer to the boat.
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| Cassin's Auklet |
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| California Gull |
Then, in deeper water we spied a few California Flying Fish! They soared along for a couple of hundred feet before plunging back into the warm water. If the started flying too close to the surface they would stick the bottom of their tail into to the water and wiggle it back and forth to gain speed.
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| California Flying Fish |
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| Pink-footed Shearwater |
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| Brown Booby |
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| Red Phalaropes |
Nothing exciting showed up far offshore. After noon we turned the boat around and headed back toward shore. That's when we spotted a Northern Fulmar in heavy molt.
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| Northern Fulmar |
Then, we spotted this...
If you can't make it out, it is the snout of an Elephant Seal. The animal is facing directly away and its head is flipped over backwards looking at us upside down! The bulbous tip of the nose is up in the air and the forehead is at water level with both its eyes looking at us from just above the water.
As we neared shore again a group of dolphins raced us.
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| Pacific White-sided Dolphin |
And a third-for-the-day Brown Booby passed over the boat before continuing on.
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| Brown Booby |
The day was quickly ending. The gulls were getting a late afternoon snack.
We entered the bay at dusk and it was quite dark by the time we reached the dock.
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| Moon over San Diego Bay. |
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