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Tour #1: Isla Santa Catalina and surroundings

2012-02-22T14:55:06-08:00February 15th, 2012|Trip Reports|

Hello whalewatchers,
We had another great day with sunny skies and calm seas. The group went ashore on Isla Santa Catalina early and everyone loved the cactus. I went for a walk for some exercise and found a few things in bloom and plenty of greenery on the various shrubs. Upon returning there was alot of interest in a Krazy Koastal Kruise (with Kaptain Kenny or Kole) so we sent three skiffs out for some birdwatching and photography of the scenery. A few people also went for a snorkel.
We left the island and immediately found two blue whales–and a cow and calf pair of blue whales in the distance. We stayed with one of the individuals for awhile because it was fluking which is always a crowd=pleaser. We were able to get a good look at this whale and its flukes.

We decided to head west towards Isla Monserate with hopes of finding more whales and maybe a different species or two. We found four more blue whales and another one pleased us with its tail fluke. Two fluking blue whales in an afternoon–that was great!
We are headed to the Bahia Agua Verde area for the night and we will take it from there. Looks like good weather again tomorrow.
Capt Art

p.s. Photo by Val Shore. Thanks, Val! See you next year!

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Tour #3: Ensenada and Islas Todos Santis

2012-03-11T08:47:34-07:00March 11th, 2012|Trip Reports|

Dear whalwatchers:
We are on our third trip of the season and we have great weather outside Ensenada. In the harbor we had two bottlenose dolphin greet us while the officials cleared the boat–a nice way to start the day. Islas Todos Santos are green and we saw all the usual suspects at the island– 3 different pinnipeds, peregrine falcon, oystercatchers, several black-vented shearwaters and more before arriving. After leaving the island we immediately started seeing northbound gray whales and some long-beaked common dolphin. We travelled for a short while and came upon a group of 8 gray whales, so we spent some time with them and had great looks at gray whales.
Also on our sighting list for today: lots of shearwaters, alcids, a few black legged kiitiwakes and a laysan albatross for the bird watchers and a small baleen whale that gave us a quick look but not quite good enough to ID it –most likely a minke whale based on what we did see.
We are enjoying calm seas and a great sunset to end the day.
Looking forward to returning to Isla San Benito.
More tomorrow,
Capt Art

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2023 Baja Whalewatching Tour #2 Offshore Ensenada and Islas San Benito (February 23-24)

2023-02-25T06:15:50-08:00February 25th, 2023|Trip Reports|

Feb 23

We were delayed a few hours in Ensenada this morning due to weather, but we got underway safely.  We saw a large pod of short-beaked common dolphin as we were leaving Bahia Todos Santos. Throughout the day we saw a few humpbacks and gray whales at a distance, along with a few black-footed albatross. We will be at San Benito some time around 11am.

Captain Mike and the boys

Feb 24

Hello whalewatchers:

We arrived just before 11am at San Benito and got everyone ashore by noon.  The folks were greeted by a large male elephant seal on the beach.  They did an hike over to the fur seal colony and we were off at about 3pm.  We were isntantly greated by a large pod of common dolphins which numbered somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 dolphins.

While we were watching the dolphins, we started seeing whale spouts and turned around and got into an area of feeding fin whales. We stayed with a pair for about 45 min before continuing on.  We immediately spotted a large area of pilot whales which put on a good show. We stayed with them for about a hour.  A couple of fin whales joined in with the pilot whales, making for a great finale for the day.

We’re headed for Laguna San Ignacio now.

Captain Mike and the boys

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Spotlight Series: Xantus in Baja!

2020-07-15T16:34:24-07:00March 6th, 2018|Spotlight Series|

Spotlight Series contains blog posts written by Searcher naturalists on curious and fascinating topics from our Searcher Natural History Tours to Baja California. Search  for “Spotlight Series” to read them all.

by Searcher naturalist, Paul Jones

John Xantus, was born in Hungary on October 5, 1825 as John Xantus de Vesey a.k.a. de Csíktaplócza1. His name at birth, in a small town in the former county of Somogy of the Kingdom of Hungary, was Xántus János. His life was as varied as the different names by which he was known, but that number falls far short of the long list of plants and animals that are named after this distinguished naturalist.

Xantus was an officer in the Hungarian army and was captured during nationalist uprisings. In 1850 he was exiled to Prague. He escaped and landed in the United States by way of Amsterdam.

Trained as a lawyer before becoming an officer, he was a jack-of-all-trades and worked in the US as a bookseller, teacher, druggist and eventually as a hospital steward. When he arrived in the US, he joined the US Army and met Dr. William Alexander Hammond. Hammond was a collector for the zoologist Spencer Fullerton Baird. Baird was a renowned biologist and was the first curator and eventually the assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institute.

Xantus sent many specimens from Fort Tejon in Southern California where he was stationed as a sergeant in 1857 and from his post in Cabo San Lucas where he was sent to be a tidal observer. According to John Steinbeck, Xantus also left a legacy of “great grandchildren” in the area, but his most famous work was in observing nature and sending specimens back to Baird in the US. You may be familiar with Hammond’s vireo, which he named after his mentor.

After returning from Baja, he went to work for the Department of State in Mexico. Depending on who you believe 3, he left his consular position either because he embarrassed the US government or because the French intervened in Mexico. In any case, he returned to Hungary where he served as curator in the Hungarian National Museum and later did more collecting in Asia before his death in 1894.

In return for his fine service, many animals and plants have been named for him by other biologists such as1:

  • Synthliboramphus hypoleucus – Xantus’s murrelet
  • Hylocharis xantusii – Xantus’s hummingbird (photo by Rich Crossen)
  • Labrisomus xanti – largemouth blenny, rock blenny
  • Halichoeres xanti – earmuff wrasse (current scientific name, Halichoeres bicolor)
  • Umbrina xanti – Polla drum, golden drum, golden croaker
  • Phyllodactylus xanti – Xantus’ leaf-toed gecko, leaf-toed gecko
    [7]
  • Portunus xantusii – Xantus’ swimming crab
  • Xantusiidae, the night-lizards family, plus the subfamily Xantusiinae, and the genus Xantusia
  • Clarkia xantiana – Xantus’ clarkia, gunsight fairyfan
  • Euphorbia xanti – shrubby euphorbia
  • Chaenactis xantiana – Xantus’ pincushion, Mojave pincushion
  • Chorizanthe xanti – Xantus’ spineflower
  • Polygala xanti – Xantus’s milkwort
  • Mimosa xanti
  • Solanum xanti

An iconic species named after this incredible biologist is the Xantus’ hummingbird, an endemic of the Cape region and which we often see on Searcher trips.

I feel badly for Xantus, not just because he suffered from his difficult living conditions in Cabo San Lucas, but also he no longer has his name linked to the Xantus’s Murrelet. Recently, ornithologists of the American Ornithological Society split the species into two, thus giving us the Guadalupe Murrelet and the Scripps’s Murrelet (which previously were subspecies of the Xantus’s Murrelet). We see both of these species on Searcher trips, so that puts the birders among us in the bonus round.

Guadalupe murrelet

1 Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Xantus

2 http://tejonconservancy.blogspot.com/2015/02/famous-naturalist-profile-john-xantus.html

3 http://www.macroevolution.net/john-xantus.html

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Pelagic Birding Tour Trip Report Sep 7-11 2009

2020-07-15T16:35:29-07:00September 11th, 2009|Trip Reports|

Report

An Osprey foraged overhead as 28 passengers gathered at San Diego’s Fisherman’s Landing on a sunny, warm Labor Day afternoon, bound for a 5-day pelagic expedition on the 95-foot live-aboard SEARCHER through the Channel Islands, over deep water canyons and along the continental shelf-edge.

Highlights of the Sept 7-11, 2009 trip include a San Diego Craveri’s Murrelet, an L.A. county Brown Booby, 32 Least Storm-Petrels, 570 Leach’s Storm-Petrels, and a spectacular whale show near San Miguel island where 25 Humpback and 5 Blue Whales literally encircled the boat!

Also of great delight to our many out-of-state participants were both subspecies of Xantus’s Murrelet (the southern breeding hypoleucus and the more northerly scrippsi), 5 Northern Fulmar, a surprising (for SoCal) 240 Buller’s Shearwater, 557 Pink-footed Shearwater, 657 Sooty Shearwater,  15 South Polar Skua, 6 Long-tailed Jaeger and 15 Black-footed Albatross.

Participants had plenty of opportunity to study 3 races of Leach’s Storm-Petrels totaling 570 individuals,  including (1) the nominate (O. l. leucorhoa) which breeds in the North Pacific from Alaska to California; (2) the southern breeding (mainly the Coronados and San Benito Islands) “Chapman’s” race (O.l. chapmani); and (3) the summer-breeding Guadalupe Island (Mexico) race, “Townsend’s” (O. l. socorroensis) that some authorities believe should be elevated to full species status.

Monday was a ‘Skua Slam” day – Skua, Pom, Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaeger.  We encountered our first jaeger a mile offshore wreaking havoc on a flock of Elegant Terns.  Before we reached the Nine Mile Bank we saw 3 Black-vented Shearwaters, a pod of Bottlenose Dolphin, a Sabine’s Gull and a Pomarine Jaeger chasing a Parasitic Jaeger.

The Nine Mile Bank proved very birdy, so birdy, in fact, that we spent the entire afternoon in San Diego waters putzing around looking at myriad seabirds counting 9 Poms, 3 Parasitics, 2 Long-tailed Jaegers, 30 Least Storm-Petrels, 138 of the “Chapman’s” race of Leach’s Storm-Petrels and the highlight of the day, a Craveri’s Murrelet at the north end of the Nine Mile Bank.

As we motored north of the Nine Mile Bank towards the Channel Islands we enjoyed sightings of 3 Blue Whales, the largest creatures to ever inhabit the face of the earth.  We also got a good look at a small baleen whale with a sharply falcate dorsal fin – a Sei whale! – a sleek,  fast-moving miniature version (and close relative of) the Fin Whale.  The sun was low when we spotted a small flock of ten jaegers on the water.  We turned SEARCHER to check them out and they flushed – 10 Long-tailed Jaegers, twenty miles offshore, due west of Moonlight Beach in Encinitas.

An absolutely gorgeous Tuesday morning sunrise at sea found us ten miles south of Anacapa Island in 500 fathoms of 64 degree water.  Dave Povey had laid a “sunrise slick” that attracted nice looks at a Skua, 3 Poms and 3 species of shearwaters, including our first of 240 trip Buller’s.

After enjoying our breakfasts and Dave’s slick handiwork, we got underway a bit after 7:00 a.m. and just sat back and enjoyed the rich diversity of seabirds – hundreds of shearwaters including another dozen Buller’s, Leach’s Storm-Petrels, Risso’s Dolphins, Northern Fur Seal, Bottlenose and Risso’s Dolphins.  We cruised west into deeper water and followed the 1000 fathom line before turning north to run the gap between Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands into colder water of the channel – where we totaled 4 Common Murres and 4 Northern Fulmar.

In the late afternoon,5 miles west of San Miguel island, we encountered the largest pod of whales many of us had ever seen consisting of about 25 Humpbacks and 5 Blue Whales.  It was a once-in-a-lifetime show, with spouts blowing 360 degrees around us as we just sat and watched for over an hour (be sure to watch the videos!).

Wednesday morning held yet another achingly beautiful sunrise.  We were anchored over a deep water canyon between Davis Knoll and Rodriguez Dome, 33 miles southwest of Point Conception, ready to begin our trip out and over the Continental Shelf edge. We proceeded west-southwest over the Rodriguez Dome and into deep water seeing a Blue Whale and 3 Fin Whales along the way.

Seabirds thinned as expected as we got out to and beyond the shelf edge and turned SEARCHER south towards the San Juan Seamount.  Buller’s Shearwaters were abundant – we counted 220 of them on this deep water day.  It was out here that we saw our only nine of the nominate Leach’s race (O. l. leucorhoa) of the trip.  We counted 343 Chapman’s and 11 Townsend’s through out the day.  It was another Skua Slam day as well – we racked up 11 Skuas, 5 Poms, 2 Parasitics and 3 Long-taileds.  We also saw 22 Guadalupe Fur Seals and delighted all aboard with good looks at a Xantus’s Murrelet of each race after a couple of frustratingly distant sightings.  4 Black-footed Albatrosses followed us off and on throughout the day.

Thursday morning we woke about 15 miles north of the Bell Bank.  We were nearly as far south as one can get in the ABA – 110 n. miles wsw of Ensenada, Baja, Mexico – but still in U.S. waters due to a zig-zagging international boundary out into the ocean.  During the day, Dave’s never-ending chum slick attracted 9 Black-footed Albatrosses which we enjoyed flying around the boat in varying numbers until dusk.  We sailed over the Bell Bank,  then turned SEARCHER on a northwest course towards the old Munitions Dumping Grounds to the Mushroom Bank and finally to the Sixty Mile Bank.

This was our last day at sea, and all afternoon we were looking for a rarity that just wouldn’t show up, so we practiced our Zen birding skills all the way until the sun was setting at the Sixty Mile Bank and the seagods rewarded our patience with a nice fly-by Brown Booby.  Dave’s sunset slick at the Sixty Mile also  produced a few Black Storm-Petrels, 2 Least Storm-Petrels and 2 “Townsends” race of Leach’s at dusk.

The booby proved a fine wrap up to a great four days at sea as we gathered in SEARCHER’S spacious salon for yet one more delicious dinner – with Cookie’s & Cream ice cream for desert.  Friday morning at 6:30 a.m. found us all on deck watching the sun rise over the San Diego skyline as SEARCHER motored into the harbor.

Special thanks to our leaders:  Todd McGrath, who threaded us through the canyons, seamounts and ridges of the California bight while finding and identifying birds at astounding distances;  Ned Brinkley, author of the “National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America,” and editor of North American Birds, the American Birding Association’s quarterly journal of ornithological record, and Dave Povey for attracting seabirds to SEARCHER with his concoctions of popcorn, fish-oil, fish-guts and beef-fat.

Thank-you to Art Taylor and Celia Condit, SEARCHER’S owners, who took a chance on “those crazy seabird lovers” in 2003 and block time every year from their natural history tours for a birding expedition enabling us to wander and ramble the California bight in search of seabirds.

It was a great week at sea.  There is nothing else quite like being out there.  You never know what you will see.  We were watching a jaeger as soon as we left the harbor.  The September weather was fantastic, as it almost always is this time of year.  New friends were made, life birds logged, and fun was had by all.  We hope you will join us on one of our upcoming pelagic trips.

Species List 7-11 SEP 2009 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Totals
Black-footed Albatross 0 2 4 9 15
Northern Fulmar 0 5 1 0 6
Sooty-Shearwater 38 390 125 4 557
Pink-footed Shearwater 35 575 28 19 657
Black-vented Shearwater 9 0 0 0 9
Buller’s Shearwater 0 20 220 0 240
Black Storm-Petrel 54 5 3 35 97
Least Storm-Petrel 30 0 0 2 32
Leach’s Storm Petrel 0 2 5 0 7
ssp Leach’s nominate 0 0 9 0 9
ssp Chapmani (Chapman’s) 138 0 343 60 541
ssp soccorinsis (Townsends) 0 0 11 2 13
Red-billed Tropicbird 0 0 0 0 0
Brown Booby 0 0 0 1 1
Red-necked Phalarope 7 43 12 1 19
Red Phalarope 4 4 238 1 135
Sabine’s Gull 1 2 1 0 4
California Gull 0 1 0 0 1
Royal Tern 0 10 0 0 10
Elegent Tern 125 4 0 0 129
Black Tern 0 0 1 0 1
Arctic Tern 0 0 15 5 20
Common Tern 15 14 0 1 30
“Comic” Tern 0 0 8 0 8
South Polar Skua 2 2 11 0 15
Pomarine Jaeger 9 4 5 1 19
Parasitic Jaeger 13 1 2 0 16
Long-tailed Jaeger 2 0 3 1 6
Jaeger ssp 2 0 3 1 6
Common Murre 0 4 0 0 4
Xantus’s Murrelet 0 0 2 0 2
ssp hpyoleucus 0 0 3 0 3
ssp scrippsi 0 0 1 0 1
Craveri’s Murrelet 1 0 0 0 1
Blue Whale 3 5 5 0 13
Fin Whale 0 0 4 0 4
Sei Whale 1 0 0 0 1
Killer Whale 0 1 0 0 1
Humpback Whale 0 25 0 0 25
Risso’s Dolphin 0 16 0 0 16
Bottlenose Dolphin 60 40 0 0 100
Pacific White-sided Dolphin 0 0 20 0 20
Common Dolphin sp 50 300 0 0 350
Short-beaked Common Dolphin 0 200 500 100 800
Long-beaked Common Dolphin 100 200 0 0 300
California Sea Lion 150 200 0 0 350
Northern Fur Seal 0 1 0 0 1
Guadalupe Fur Seal 0 0 22 0 22
Harbor Seal 10 0 0 0 10
Mako Shark 0 0 1 0 1
Blue Shark 0 1 0 0 1
Mola Mola 0 0 7 0 7
Flying Fish 2 8 0 0 10
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NEW! Guadalupe Island, Mexico Seabirding Trip!

2011-05-05T13:14:59-07:00May 5th, 2011|News|

We are hosting an exciting pelagic trip to Guadalupe Island, Mexico in search of the Ainley’s Storm-petrel. In the late fall and winter, the islands surrounding Guadalupe are the home of “Ainley’s” Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa.cheimomnestes). “Ainley’s” is currently considered a subspecies of Leach’s Storm-petrel, but a growing body of evidence, including vocal and genetic differences suggest full species status is warranted.

Join top-notch leaders Steve Howell and Todd McGrath on this prime-time Nov 30-Dec 4, 2011 trip. Many other seabirds are on the target list as well. Click below for details:

http://www.bajawhale.com/pelagic/guadalupe-island-mexico-seabirding-expedition/

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2017 Tour #1 Islas San Benito

2020-07-15T16:34:38-07:00February 9th, 2017|Trip Reports|

Dear whalewatchers:
We had an interesting day of weather at Islas San Benito with foggy conditions all day.

 

Everyone enjoyed the island and saw lots of activity with elephant seals: mating, fighting, nursing and everything that takes place in an active harem on the beach.  A few Guadalupe fur seal were sighted as well,  and osprey on the nest. This all makes for great photography!

Skiff picks up passengers after their day on the island.

 

 

 

Free time for painting the scenery around you!

Team Searcher

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San Diegans!

2011-04-05T13:30:59-07:00April 5th, 2011|News|

Come learn more about the very endangered “gulf of california” porpoise, called the vaquita, on Sunday April 10 at 6 p.m. We’ll be showing the 40-minute film about conservation efforts and the outlook for this species–only 250 of them survive. Email me for all the details. Event is free, though a $5 donation to ProPeninsula is suggested.

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Terry Hunefeld’s Report on Wildlife Weekend

2010-09-30T07:05:15-07:00June 2nd, 2010|Trip Reports|

The Memorial Day Wildlife Weekend trip from San Diego aboard the live-aboard Searcher delivered all we hoped for and more: sunny skies, warm temperatures, gently rolling seas and pleasant breezes. Highlights included 6 tropicbirds, 6 skua, 4 Laysan Albatrosses and 11 species of cetaceans including blue whales, a cooperative minke whale, a very late northbound adult gray whale and 20 very-rare-this-far-south northern right whale dolphins.

We stayed south of San Clemente island to maximize both our marine mammal and bird lists. The trip report is now posted to SoCalBirding.com and included photos by 5 photographers plus video footage of south polar skua, laysan & black-footed albabross, blue, minke, fin and humpback whales, risso’s and pacific white-sided dolphin.
Trip report: http://www.socalbirding.com/2010tripreports/searchermay29312010.html

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Sunset Magazine – Top 10 Reasons to Cruise Now – Feb 2016

2016-01-15T09:09:23-08:00January 13th, 2016|News|

The Searcher family is happy and proud to share the news. Sunset Magazine has featured our Baja Whalewatching Tour as one of the top 10 reasons to cruise for 2016! Click the link below to read all about it…and don’t miss the boat!

http://www.sunset.com/travel/cruise-ship

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