The Albatross Trifecta!

Fantastic! I can’t believe it! I can’t believe my good luck! Whenever you board a boat and head out to sea, you dream of seeing something beyond your wish list. The impossible can become possible. Today that came true for me. Three albatrosses, 10 new birds for the Big Year, and 5 lifers. Wow!

We were all aboard by 6:15 and got underway by 6:30, in the dark. We hit scattered patches of drizzle on the way out but it was not windy or cold. Eventually it cleared up. Not too far out we found Cassin’s Auklet (519). A little farther was a distant South Polar Skua (520) (ABA 640) (World 2834). On the way back we saw one closer and then a third one closer still so you could see the silver patches in the wings, a big, heavy, hulking bird, not to be confused with anything else and a long-awaited find for me.

Next up was Forked-tailed Storm-Petrel (521), present in Monterey but not this year. Eventually we saw many, some close to the boat. Buller’s Shearwater (522) came right by the boat, showing all the field marks, especially the big “M” on its back. We saw many today. How many Northern Fulmars (523) did we see? Over 100, all but two were dark morph, like this one:

Notice the tube nose for excreting salt. When the boat stops to look at something, you know it’s something good. Get your camera ready. Scripps’s Murrelet (524) (ABA 641) (World 2835) is worth stopping for. Even I got a photograph:

We saw another pair on the way back. They don’t record this species on every trip. I missed Parasitic Jaeger in Monterey but saw 2-3 here (525). Among the many Sooty Shearwaters, we pulled out a few Short-tailed Shearwaters (526) (ABA 642) (World 2836).

Black-footed Albatross is plentiful here, more so than in Monterey. So that’s one. By and by along came a bird I hoped we might see but could not expect: Laysan Albatross (527) (ABA 643) (World 2837). What a beauty! If we saw no more I would have been 100% satisfied. Those of you who belong to the American Bird Conservancy read in the most recent newsletter an article about a young Fish and Wildlife biologist who, back in the 1950’s, banded a certain Laysan Albatross on Midway Island. There is even a picture of him. Who is it? Chan Robbins! The bird in question is now at least 68 years old and still laying eggs on Midway. And those of you who do not belong to ABC should. That’s two albatrosses. Plenty for one day for any birder.

At 40 miles off-shore, the captain put the boat in park and shut off the motor. Then it happened. I’ll let Bill Tweit, lead spotter, narrate. “Hey, what’s this coming in! Look at the bill, get on the bill!!! (He is not using his binoculars, he’s too busy chumming.) LOOK AT THE BILL!!! Holy (expletive deleted)!!!! S-H-O-R-T – T-A-I-L-E-D A-L-B-A -T-R-OOOOOS!!!!!” (528) (ABA 644) (World 2838). It came in close, flew by us, turned, and passed again. This was not a fleeting or distant look, it was right on top of us! I don’t care if my pictures are blurry, I have pictures of Short-tailed Albatross:

Notice the dark color like a Black-footed Albatross but it has a honking pink bill! You can’t miss the bill! The seven foot + wingspan in not obvious in the picture. This species is rare both in terms of frequency of sightings (Bill Tweit has seen 6 in the last 30 years; they go years without seeing it out here) but also in terms of total population. Bill described its brush with extinction. First, its numbers were decimated by the millinery trade. Then, the volcanic island it nests on in Japan erupted, killing all adults and leaving 20 juveniles. It now numbers some 2000 birds. So yes, this bird came all the way from Japan and back from the brink of extinction.

Cetaceans were way fewer than in Monterey, attesting to that bay’s rich waters. For pinnipeds, we saw Stellar’s Sea Lions on buoys near the harbor and Northern Fur Seals way off shore.

So that’s today. Surely the albatross will go down as the Bird of the Year for my Big Year. I stepped off the boat with the refund in hand from tomorrow’s cancelled trip, one I don’t think I needed to take after all.