Capt Aaron and crew came upon a fantastic whalewatching experience while on our annual 5-day Labor Day Pelagic Birding Tour (September 5-9, 2016). There was a group of 40-60 whales–blue, fin, and humpback whales–in the same area feeding on krill and squid. This video was taken while some of the whales came very close to the boat. Enjoy!
Dave Pereksta’s photo of the murrelet from a previous trip.
Hello birders: We had a great day on the calm Pacific Ocean today! We started the day off by checking out lots of shearwaters and storm petrels in our slick. The highlight this morning was an epic look at a Guadalupe murrelet. Shortly after we had a Red-billed tropicbird circle the boat for around 15 minutes while we had a brown booby fly by as well.
The afternoon’s sightings consisted of fin whales, blue whales and some more common dolphin. Even a loggerhead turtle graced us for awhile. We saw a few Craveri’s murrelets, and the last pair we saw let us get close for us all to enjoy. We’re going to bird for a couple hours before calling a great trip!
Capt Aaron and the Searcher crew
Many thanks to Tom Blackman for the brown booby photo use!
Hello birders: We had some strange weather this morning with patchy fog and even mist. The birding has been on the slow side so far, but the ones we have seen are lifers for many. One was a Wilson storm petrel and for others, it was the Bullers shearwater. We found several more blue whales and a couple fin whales in the area again today. We’re hoping for good birding this afternoon.
Capt Aaron and the Searcher crew
The afternoon’s report included a tropicbird (photo from a previous trip) and Townsend’s storm petrels!
Hello! We’re enjoying this nice weather by the Channel Islands. We started east of Santa Cruz Island and followed the shelf edge. We had really good looks at long-tailed and pomarine jaegers, lots of common dolphin and a small group of bottlenose dolphin. There are also large numbers of red-necked phalaropes and black-vented shearwaters in this area.
Black-vented shearwater, thanks to Tom Blackman
We are going up by San Miguel Island this afternoon, hoping to see some more wildlife.
Capt Aaron and Team Searcher
Blue whale fluking
Surfacing blue whale and open blowhole
p.s. Capt Aaron called the office shortly after sending this report. He was in an area of more than a dozen blue whales and they were lunge feeding all around the boat! Needless to say, he was pretty excited and wanted us to add it to the mid-day report! Many thanks to Rob Nawojchik for the use of these blue whale photos!
It appears that the crew and leaders are too busy to send an official report!
Stand-outs from yesterday afternoon: black-footed albatross, least and black storm petrels, Craveri’s murrelets. This morning brought pomarine and long-tailed jaegers, skua, giant mola, bottlenose and common dolphin. Beautiful weather! We are standing by for a mid-day report and photo…unless they remain too busy! (Attached is a Black-footed albatross taken by Tom Blackman.)
Our annual 5-day birding adventure through the southern-most ABA waters and through the Channel Islands departed today with 25 birders and 4 leaders.
Birders from across the US joined the tour, and Andrea and Neil came from Canada.
Leader Dave P reported for duty, loaded for birds!
Orientation before setting sail.
Wishing them fantastic sightings of pelagic birds and marine mammals!
The northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) is one of four species of pinnipeds regularly found in the waters around Baja California (for a discussion of pinnipeds in general, please see my Rob-servations Blog #10). There are two species of elephant seal in the world, the northern and southern, with the southern one being found in the southern hemisphere. The northern elephant seal is mostly found in the eastern North Pacific Ocean and is the species we see in Baja.
Elephant Seal by Mark Scilly
Elephant seals are members of the pinniped family Phocidae, as is the harbor seal, another Baja pinniped species.
Harbor Seal by Rob Nawojchik
All members of this family share various traits that help distinguish them from the other major group of pinnipeds, the family Otariidae (which includes the California sea lion and Guadalupe fur seal, both species found in Baja).
Elephant seals (and other phocids) lack an external ear flap, have relatively small front flippers (compared to otariids), cannot rotate their hind flippers forward, hunch along awkwardly when on land, and primarily use their hind flippers and bodies when swimming underwater (see Blog #10 for more details).
As a general rule, phocids tend to have little to no sexual dimorphism, while otariids are characterized by having sexual dimorphism. The term “sexual dimorphism” refers to the differences between male and female members of a species. Many people equate the term with differences in body size, but the term also encompasses other differences, such as the bright colors in some male birds, or the antlers in male deer. The BIG exception to the lack of sexual dimorphism in phocids is … the elephant seal! Male elephant seals are gigantic, much larger than the females. Elephant seals are not only the largest pinnipeds, but are also the most sexually dimorphic mammals. Adult male northern elephant seals get up to 4.2 meters (14 feet) and 2,500 kilograms (5,500 pounds), compared with 2.8 m (9 feet) and 600 kg (1,300 pounds) for females. Southern elephant seals get even larger!
Oftentimes a size disparity between male and female mammals suggests a polygynous mating system, in which a few males mate with many females. Elephant seals have such a mating system, where large bulls compete with each other for control of desirable sections of beach.
Much larger male elephant seal surrounded by much smaller females and others.
The best beaches have good haul-out sites for females to come ashore, give birth to their pups, nurse them for one month, and then mate again before heading back out to sea. The beachmaster bulls have mating access to many females (and get to pass on their genes to many pups), whereas the vanquished males may not get to mate at all that season.
Northern elephant seals haul out twice a year in certain select locations along the California and Baja California coasts. During our Searcher Natural History Tour to Baja, we spend a day on West San Benito Island, one of the three San Benito Islands that serve as the primary haul-out site for elephant seals in Baja. In addition to hauling out for pupping and mating, elephant seals haul out later in the year for molting, a process by which they shed old hair and skin quite rapidly (all mammals continuously shed old hair and skin, but elephant seals go through a “catastrophic molt”).
We always see elephant seals on West San Benito Island. However, the composition of the elephant seal groups varies by month. During the Searcher’s first trips of the year (late January and early February), we can see adult males and females, as well as very young pups. As the season progresses, we see fewer adult males and the pups are getting larger. By the time we get to April, few adult males are left, many of the pups have been weaned and their mothers have departed, and other elephant seals (mostly sub-adults) have arrived for molting.
Rob Nawojchik, author of Rob-servations, guides Searcher passengers around the elephant seal haul-out areas on scenic Isla San Benito.
When elephant seals leave the San Benito Islands, they head to their feeding grounds thousands of miles away in certain areas of the North Pacific Ocean. While there, they dive very deep to feed on squid. Elephant seals are the champion divers among pinnipeds, capable of diving deeper and longer than other species. In fact, the diving capabilities of elephant seals are comparable to that of sperm whales. Much of what we know about the movements and diving patterns of elephant seals comes from the use of satellite-linked time-depth recorders (TDRs) that are attached to the seals at their haul-out sites. Due to their double migration (one for reproduction and one for molting), northern elephant seals end up migrating more than any other mammal, up to 21,000 km (13,000 miles) per year!
While observing these amazing animals during our Baja tours, I like to remind everyone that elephant seals were hunted to the brink of extinction. It is only because of their current protected status, and safe havens such as the San Benito Islands, that the northern elephant seal has made such a remarkable recovery.
Searcher at Anchor – Isla San Benito, Mexico by Lee Morgan
We were touched to see a Facebook post by Linda Riseborough about enjoying her tea from a Searcher souvenir mug. She posted “We drink our tea from Searcher mugs on the Norfolk Broads in the UK. I wonder how far other mugs travel?!”
So we invited others to weigh in! Mugs have been spotted in Ewa Beach, Oahu, Hawaii; Ouderkerk aan de Amstel (Amsterdam area) the Netherlands; and York England! Please send in a photo of your Searcher mug and we’ll post it along with the others.
We’d love to see the far and distant lands that our Searcher Natural History Tours mugs have travelled!
Rene Kadijk has been using his old-school mug since 1995! This mug resides near Amsterdam in The Netherlands.
Linda’s mug is enjoying the scenery on the Norfolk Broads in the UK.
Louise Ling enjoys her cuppa in York, England which “brings back so many brilliant memories” of her trip aboard Searcher to Baja California.
And we shouldn’t forget about the Searcher Natural History Tour water bottle! Karen Madsen and Julie Brownell Walters didn’t forget it on a recent whalewatch trip.
Brian C. had his mug with him in Bangkok, and is packing it for his new post in Beirut!
Ah, the Birdfair in Rutland, England…where Searcher passengers gather, and so do their mugs!
And of course, the water bottle was needed at Falmouth, Serena Stewart’s home beach.
Get offshore with us!
2017 dates are set and it’s time to book your spot on the annual 5-day birding tour covering the southernmost ABA area. We never know exactly what we’ll find, but it’s always an exciting search!
Pink-footed shearwater ©Tom Blackman
Target birding areas include deep-water canyons, underwater seamounts, and around islands of the southern California bight. From San Diego, you’ll travel north over the 9 Mile Bank, through the Channel Islands, and past Point Conception to Arguello Canyon, Rodriguez Dome, San Juan Seamount and wherever the seabirds lead us.
Sperm whale surfacing ©Rob Nawojchik
There’s lots of sea time for searching out rarities, chumming, and observing a variety of marine life during the four days at sea. Sperm whales and other deep-water whales, blue, fin, and humpback whales; a variety of dolphins; and sharks are commonly spotted.
Check out last year’s sightings list here: 2015 Pelagic Birding Tour Sightings
And click here to get a spot now before it’s sold out! 2017 Pelagic Birding Tour
Most guests chose our tour for the unparalleled whalewatching opportunities in Baja California. However the unusual plant life of this peninsula and its islands captures the attention of most as well.
Colleague/friend, Donna Parham, wrote about the plantlife of Baja, as exhibited at the impressive San Diego Safari Park’s Baja Garden:
A Stroll Through the Baja Garden
Capt Art poses with a cardon cactus on Baja’s Isla Santa Catalina.
