Birding the Big Briny

The Searcher, San Diego Harbor

Ok, you can level with me. Are headers like the one above corny enough to make you puke? Really? Well - if you're so easily nauseated then you would not have survived where I've been the past week. I'm just back from a jaunt on The Searcher; at sea between the Santa Catalina Islands off Santa Barbara County and the deep waters off Baja California. It was many a strange critter I saw and here are the highlights of the five day, four night Pelagic cruise.

We boarded the Searcher on Saturday and though the weather seemed nice enough, that evening the it turned hellish. How bad was the storm? I never get sea-sick but if I ever came close, it was Saturday night. All through the wee hours I lay bracing myself in my little cabin, least I get tossed from my bunk. A big storm was blowing in and we all discovered the truth of the phrase 'any port in a storm'. Our captain took us skurrying to duck the maelstom at Oxnard Harbor. All day Sunday we sat moored at the cusp of Ventura County, waiting for the storm to blow over. It was strange to sit in the calm, sunny harbor and know that just outside of the harbor the ocean was kicking up waves that could trip a whale.

The following morning we headed out of the harbor. There on the ocean all was dead calm and we could hardly believe it was the same ocean that only the night before had tossed us around like a sock in the grip of a playful terrier.

This trip there were no whales like when last boarded the Searcher in September 2005, but there were plenty of dolphins to enjoy; Dalls Porpoise, Bottlenose, Risso’s, Common Long-beaked, Pacific White-sided Dolphins and playful Northern Right Whale Dolphins. We even saw a Thresher Shark with its dorsal fin out of the water in true Jaw’s style. Don't forget to click on the photos to see them full size.

Northern Right Whale Dolpin - whole body out of the water!

I love being able to see this cute Northern Right
Whale Dolphin's white chin and little beak

A Dall's Porpoise - tearing through the
water - the buggers are FAST!

No whales, loads of dolphins but even more birds.

My 'lifer' Laysan Albatross

Pomarine Jaeger - sky pirate

I know some of the photos above seem much ado about nothing, but honestly, if you could have seen how humongous the ocean was, and how eensie some of the birds, such as the Cassin's were, you'd be impressed by the stalwart little buggers too.

Cassin's Auklet - otherwise known as 'a baseball with wings'

Xantus's Murrelette - How can something
so teeny stay alive out there on the ocean?

Common Murre - another very small seabird

Elegant Terns - the tiniest of the lot - note
the pair on the right having a bit of a squabble

The trip paid birdy dividens, I got three new lifers: the Laysan Albatross, Short-tailed Shearwater and Ashy Storm Petrel. That puts my life list at 559. Keep in mind that I was birding on that boat with birders whose life lists were in the 700 range. GAK! Oh well. I'll get there eventually, if my purse holds up.

Oh! Before I forget, remember my whining about the camera zoom lens that would not focus? Uh... turns out it does focus... UNLESS you put a polarizer lens on it, which interfers with the ultrasonic focusing do-hickie.

*DUH*

The Cassin's winging it away - THE END!

Yippy Skippy!

Delivery slip for my package was on the front door. Sat in DHL air express delivery for over an hour because, no suprise, the driver whose truck had my package was new and running late, late, late. I sat for the hour but finally driver arrived and package was in my arms!

Got home - are you excited? - opened package, removed bitchn' new lens and... and... THIS ONE WORKS! Wooot! Tomorrow I give the lens its first outing photographing albatross, tropic birds and whales!

Honestly, am I a happy girl or what?

Must shower, feed grumpy old kitty and get to bed. *happy sigh*

Vindication!

Wild Tom out strolling

On Monday I went on a photo trek with co-worker Terry, whose passion is wildlife photography. He has the same lens I just returned and his lens worked just dandy with my camera. It was not my imagination/ineptitude/stupidity or malfunctioning camera that were the cause of the new canon lens screwing up. Hurrah!
Here are a few shots I took with my camera and Terry’s lens a few days ago.

Mama Great-horned Owl at home with her 3 fluffy chicks

Different nest, different Mama Keeping the kids warm

See? See! Perfectly perfect operation of my camera with Terry’s lens.
Enough gloating. Terry gave me some great photography pointers and now once again, I am capable of shooting pics on manual in the manner of "stand back, a very nearly professional photographer working here!" as opposed to shooting on automatic, in the manner of “help me I’m so inept I can’t read a meter or bracket to save my life." geeze, that was the longest sentence I've written in quite a while.Aside from putting my camera/lens fears in the toilet, Terry had great advice finding critters, for example how to locate coyote dens and such. His motto is 'if you can find and photograph animals and leave them doing what you found them doing, that is the goal.' In other words, don't scare the crap out of the critters.

Learn to Leave 'em Browsing

It is my belief that some day Terry’s going to wake up and discover he’s been channeling Steve Irwin. Honestly, he’s that good.

Anyway, we had fun hiking up hill over dale, photographing deer, birds and of course, two families of Great Horned Owls. I learned a ton of good useful information. I told Terry he really ought to hire himself out as an experienced wildlife photography guide. Hope he gives it a go because I mean, he managed to teach an old bat new tricks (me = old bat) and he might as well get paid and finance his hobby/photography addiction. The end of a great outing was a twilight view of a River Otter floating downstream. No photos of the otter, it was too far off and the light was spent - bugger! Oh well, maybe next time.