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Trip Reports

2022 Baja Whalewatching Tour #1 Day 4 (Feb 26)

Hello whalewatchers,

It’s our second day in Laguna San Ignacio, the gray whale winter lagoon.

We sent a group of birders to the mangroves first thing this morning and everyone had a great trip with lots of birds seen. Another panga with whalewatchers went out and had a great trip also. We had a break and sent the whole group out whalewatching.  We all enjoyed lots of sightings and saw all the usual gray whale behaviors. After lunch the group went to the beach for a walk and a look at a gray whale carcass from earlier in the season.

Here is our highlight with a curious whale visiting the Searcher again for at least an hour. The crew got the deck brush out and gave the whale a scratch on the head.

We are departing this afternoon and heading south tonight.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

2022-02-26T14:06:33-08:00February 26th, 2022|Trip Reports|
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2022 Baja Whalewatching Tour #1 Day 3 (Feb 25)

Hello all,

We arrived safely to Laguna San Ignacio this morning and were greeted with several gray whales at the entrance. Our pangas arrived, and we are lucky to have some old friends to work with this trip; Victor, Domingo and Chopi. These guys were part of the original panga drivers from the start 24 years ago. It’a been so good to reconnect with them. The conditions are pleasant with light winds so far. We had a whale come by the bow and the anchor line this morning and here is a picture next to Searcher.

More later,

Captain Art and Team Searcher

2022-02-25T17:21:07-08:00February 25th, 2022|Trip Reports|
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2022 Baja Whalewatching Tour #1 Day 1/2 (Feb 23/24)

Hello whalewatchers:

We started our first trip of 2022 with challenging weather, wind and rain for the first 24 hours. But the further south we travel, the better the weather.

Yesterday we travelled south from Ensenada and in the afternoon we had some good views of Laysan albatross and a pair of fin whales. We also saw plenty of Black-vented shearwaters, Northern fulmars and a distant view of a Black-footed albatross. Great seabirding in the wind!

We are arriving at Isla San Benito this morning and the weather looks much better with a few clouds and light winds. It should be great hiking weather. I’m sure the group will appreciate stopping and watching the nesting osprey and resting elephant seals.

Capt Art and Team Searcher

Baja sunrise this morning just north of Isla San Benito island with Isla Cedros in the distance

Good afternoon whalewatchers:

We arrived just after breakfast this morning and it was great to stop the boat in a calm spot. Everyone enjoyed the walk and saw plenty of pinnipeds: Northern elephant seals and Guadalupe fur seals. There were approxiamately 100 fur seals which is great to see at this time of year. The island was dry with not much in bloom. Here is a photo of the group on the trail Everything else is going well, we hope for less wind tomorrow as we arrive at Laguna San Ignacio.

Capt Art and Team Searcher

Group on the trail on Isla San Benito

2022-02-25T17:27:46-08:00February 24th, 2022|Trip Reports|
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Great Start to 2021 with Offshore Pelagic Sightings!

We are excited to share these recent offshore sightings from local pelagic experts, Dave Povey and Matt Sadowski, who were out to cover the offshore areas on 2 Jan 2021.

Searcher Natural History Tours has scheduled our NEW 3-day pelagic birding tour over Memorial Day weekend!   We plan to spend time covering the distant waters needed to access these birds while we search, observe, and photograph birds and other marine life including whales and dolphins. Leaders will include Dave Povey and Dave Pereksta.

The following is a partial list and numbers from the trip on 2 Jan 2021. Dave reports:

“Most birds were beyond 5 nautical miles, and many more at 10 nautical miles plus. We covered a wide area from below Point Loma including the Nine Mile Bank, and covered south to north and all the way into La Jolla Canyon.”

    • Northern Fulmar (1)
    • Pink-footed Shearwater (1)
    • dark shearwater sp. (1)
    • Black-vented Shearwater (4000+)
    • Brown Booby (1)
    • Red Phalarope (4)
    • Parasitic Jaeger (1)
    • Pomarine Jaeger (3-5)
    • jaeger sp. (2)
    • Scripps’s Murrelet (2)
    • Cassin’s Auklet (1)
    • Rhinoceros Auklet (2-3)
    • Bonaparte’s Gull (1000+)
    • California Gull (700)
    • Royal Tern (5-6)
2021-01-04T12:08:07-08:00January 4th, 2021|News, Trip Reports|
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Pelagic Birding Trip

Searcher Natural History Tours’ annual 5-day Labor Day pelagic birding trip sailed Sept 7-11, 2020. Passengers and leaders surveyed deep-water areas from the southwestern limits of the ABA, north to the Channel Islands, and west to the Rodriguez Dome and San Juan Seamount, offshore up to 200 miles.

Highlight sightings included Laysan albatross;  Guadalupe, Scripps, and Craveri’s murrelets (in the same day!); Sabine’s gull; Nazca and Blue-footed boobies; South Polar skua; Cook’s petrel; and a flock of Buller’s shearwaters. Over 100 species were observed and photographed.
Join us in 2021! There’s a few spots still open so you can reserve your spot at the rail. Meanwhile, enjoy our highlights video!
link to 2021 trip: 2021 Pelagic Birding Tour
2020-10-30T10:04:30-07:00October 30th, 2020|Trip Reports|
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2020 Pelagic Birding Tour Sep 7-11

Hello all,

It’s been excellent day with plenty of things to look at including storm petrels, shearwaters, and albatrosses including at least 20 black-footed and the highlight of the day: a laysan albatross! Lots of people added this bird to their life list.

We spent quite a bit of time on the Cortez Bank with albatrossess next to the boat. And then had a surprise visit from an immature Nazca booby too. Great weather again with a little breeze this afternoon. Headed home tonight after a very successful trip!

Captain Art and Team Searcher

2020-09-11T14:27:18-07:00September 11th, 2020|Trip Reports|
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2020 Pelagic Birding Tour Sep 7-11

Hello all,

We had a great day today and several people added to their life list! Passenger Ben had a birthday today and added four birds to his life list.

We saw all three possible murrelets today: Craveri’s, Scripps’s and Guadalupe. That was a first for us on this annual trip!
The weather was calm, and we had good looks at blue whales and a distant look at fin whales. Common dolphin showed up as well.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

2020-09-10T11:01:58-07:00September 10th, 2020|Trip Reports|
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2020 Pelagic Birding Tour Sep 7-11

Hello all,

We started our day at Santa Barbara Island where a brown booby colony has established. Recently a blue footed booby has joined the colony, so this is the first time that we have seen a blue-footed booby on our Southern California pelagic tours, which is significant. There is speculation that there might be breeding between the brown and blue-footed boobies.

After spending time viewing the boobies, we headed west towards a temperature change with hopes of some bird life there. There were shearwaters, storm petrels, jaegers ,terns and an occasional murrelet. We also found common dolphins, a few bottlenose dolphins, and a single humpback whale.
We are headed to San Miguel Island to spend the night and then head out into deep water tomorrow.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Booby colony on a rock at Santa Barbara Island.

2020-09-09T07:40:34-07:00September 9th, 2020|Trip Reports|
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2020 Pelagic Birding Tour Sep 7-11

Hello all,

We departed on our annual pelagic birding trip today. We are headed west for the afternoon.

We saw loads of black-vented shearwaters on the 9-mile bank. And we went through an area of black storm petrels with an occasional least storm petrel. We also listed pomarine jaegers, Sabine’s gulls, and masked and brown boobies.

We are continuing west tonight and starting at Santa Barbara island hoping for a look at the brown booby colony.

Enjoying great weather!
Captain Art and Team Searcher

We are always grateful for Tom Blackman’s photos in our birding blog posts, including this one!

2020-09-08T09:59:48-07:00September 8th, 2020|Trip Reports|
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2020 Tour #3 March 8-19

Hello whalewatchers,

We are having a great morning! We started with a walk ashore for some birdwatching. And a vermillion flycatcher was the highlight.

We have seen five blue whales so far, and a whale that looks like a blue whale with a larger dorsal fin. Some think it is a fin whale. There’s a debate! here it is up close to the starboard corner with naturalist Tom Jefferson in the frame.

Capt Art and Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers,

What a tremendous day for whalewatching! We’ve seen several blue whales, a few fin whales, and a couple of humpbacks in the mix. We were able to get very good looks at the whales and there were multiple whales showing flukes, like the blue whale shown here. The weather was great as well.

Capt Art and Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:07-07:00March 18th, 2020|Trip Reports|
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