Captain's Blog

Hello birders:

(brown booby photo courtesy of Tom Blackman.)

We started our day at Santa Barbara Island observing a colony of brown boobies that have made the island their home and are nesting here. There was one Nazca booby there as well. We were able to get the boat in close to the island safely to get a great look at the birds on the rock.

We have travelled west most of the morning and crossed into the Santa Cruz basin and into deeper water. So far we have seen shearwaters, storm petrels, boobies, terns and jaegers. We’ve encountered 3 different groups of short-beaked common dolphins with boobies and shearwaters associated with them. We are headed northwest now in shallower water towards the Channel Islands.

(pink-footed shearwater and Risso’s dolphins photos courtesy of Tom Blackman on previous trips)

Hello birders:

We had a good start to our annual pelagic birding trip today. The seas are calm with very little wind. We saw many expected species on the first day, with the highlight being a red-footed booby. Some of our local species seen: black-vented and pink-footed shearwaters; black, ashy and least storm petrels; pomarine and long-tailed jaegers; common tern, brown booby; and Cassin’s auklets. We saw Risso’s dolphins and a fin whale too.

Risso’s dolphin by Tom Blackman
Grampus friseus

We are looking forward to tomorrow. With this weather I’m sure we will have a great day 2!

Capt Art and Team Searcher

We’re departing Monday, Labor Day, for our annual 5-day, targeting species in the southern California bight. Leaders include Todd McGrath, Dave Povey, Dave Pereksta, and Rob Hynson. Stay tuned to this space for the daily reports from the field!

Howdy whalewatchers:

We started out on Gorda Banks this morning and found a pair of humpbacks at daylight. Shortly after we saw a group of six humpbacks who were very physical with each other. We thought it was possible that they were battling young males. We had some really good views. After lunch we headed in toward Los Frailes to go ashore and for a bird walk. A crested caracara was the highlight there.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

Howdy whalerwatchers,

We have have been traveling south all day with good sightings of shearwaters: black-vented, pink-footed, and sooty. We saw a group of long-beaked common dolphins feeding on some small fish along with pelicans, magnificent frigates, and red-footed boobies. And passengers had a chance to chill on the back deck as well!

Afternoon report: We spent some time with a a fluking blue whale this afternoon and it was awesome. We also saw lots of Cook’s petrels.

Our jokester Mike looked hard with his custom-made toilet paper roll binoculars.

capt aaron and the searcher crew

Howdy whalewatchers,

We had another great day in Laguna San Ignacio with gray whales! One panga  went for a birding trip into the mangroves and they had a magnificent look at a male mangrove warbler only feet away.

The other two pangas went out for whalewatching in the calm lagoon and got to touch whales all morning.

The weather held up and it was a great day for looking at gray whales. We’re headed south to be around Magdalena Bay tomorrow in deep water.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

Howdy whalewatchers,

We’ve had a great morning here in Laguna San Ignacio! The weather is great and the sun is out. The group had a fantastic encounter with mother/calf gray whales on our morning trips, so there’s lots of smiles today at lunchtime.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

Howdy whalewatchers,

It was just a great afternoon here! The weather has been great all day and the passengers are enjoying themselves, observing and touching gray whales.

Here’s the group enjoying a batch of the skipper’s boa-made margaritas on the back deck.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

Howdy whalewatchers,

What a great day on the island! Passengers walked the trails and saw California sea lions, northern elephant seals, Guadalupe fur seals and even a harbor seal. There were several ospreys on the nest and flying around.(Thank you to Joanne Lasnier for use of her osprey photo from her 2017 trip to Isla San Benito.)

Blue whale dorsal fin @ Colin Barber (from a 2018 Baja trip)

We left the island and had some fog again, but the ocean was nice and calm. The fog lifted for us just in time for us to get a good look at a blue whale, lots of black -vented shearwaters, Casssin’s auklets, and another black-footed albatross. We also watched a school of bonito jumping out of the water chasing small bait fish.

We’re headed to Laguna San Ignacio tomorrow.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

Howdy whalewatchers,

Despite some foggy conditions this morning, we have had views of common dolphin throughout the morning and good birding, including black-vented and pink-footed shearwaters, Northern fulmars, Sabines gulls, Cassin’s auklets, and laysan albatross.

Black-footed albatross @ McGrath

The ocean is calm with no wind and the visibility is slowly improving.

Pacific white-sided dolphin @ Rob Nawojchik

Afternoon report: The fog lifted and we saw both black-footed and laysan albatrosses, more common dolphin and some Pacific white-sided dolphins.

We also saw a mola mola (fish) that was swimming on the surface, and the grand finale was a blue whale off in the distance. It was very long-winded and didn’t surface often. We got a few looks at the whale in the distance.

We’re headed towards San Benito island tomorrow.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher