[obol] 5 storm-petrel species Curry/Coos.

[Jeff Gilligan]

Hornby's, Ashy, Black/Markham's, Fork-tailed, and Leach's Storm-Petrels.


Rich and Nanette Armstrong, Sheran Wright, Owen Schmidt and I took a cruise
from San Francisco to Vancouver, BC from May 2 to May 4 for the purpose of
sea-birding.  As we had hoped and planned, the ship was far off the Oregon
coast  (42 to 68 miles) for all day light hours on May 2.

After a very rough night at sea off northern California we began birding off
Del Norte County.  Our biggest surprise there was a CASPIAN TERN about 50
miles off shore flying north.  There were many flocks of breeding plumage
RED PHALARPES, a few LONG-TAILEWDJ AEGERS, and a few SABINE'S GULLS - all in
magnificent breeding plumage.

Soon after entering Oregon (Curry County) waters at about 45 miles off
shore, we began to see many many LEACH'S STORM-PETRELS.  At one point 40
were in sight at one time.  We continued to see many all the way to southern
Douglas County.  We didn't record numbers because the birding was so hot.  A
smaller percentage of FORK-TAILED STORM PETRELS were also seen, and small
numbers of that species were seen the length of the coast.  Our very rough
estimate of total numbers of these two species was:

1,000 plus LEACH' STORM-PETRELS
200 FORK-TAILED STORM-PETRELS.

These numbers may be far low.  It was possible to almost always see
storm-petrels for about a hundred miles of the coast. If we looked far from
the ship we could see even more than we could see within easy range of the
ship.

Off Gold Beach we saw a BLACK or MARKHAM'S STORM-PETREL flying parallel to
the ship.  Its  larger size, lack of a white rump, wider wings, deep more
deliberate wing beats, and more direct flight style made it distinctive from
the Leach's SPs that we were seeing in abundance.    More research is need
to determine if that is the flight style of a Markham's SP - a species that
occurs to 15 North off western Mexico.  The flight style was consistent with
my experience with Black SPs, a species on the Oregon list.  If it was a
Markham's we will never know.  It was certainly in that species pair.

Large numbers of RED PHALAROPES, about 30 LONG-TAILED JAEGERS, 3 POMARINE
JAEGERS, 2 PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERS, many NORTHERN FULMARS, a flock of CANADA
or CACKLING GEES, a flock of BRANT, 70 or so SABINE'S GULLS, a few WESTERN
GULLS, 3 ARCTIC TERNS, 5 TUFTED PUFFINS,  and small numbers of BLACK-FOOTED
ALBATROSSES were also off the southern two counties of Oregon.
Off about Cape Blanco Owen mentioned that he had seen to dark-rumped
storm-petrels in the distance flying in a more gliding way than other
storm-petrels we had seen.

Off Coos Bay, the ever-vigilant Nanette exclaimed "white-bellied
storm-petrel".   I was able to almost immediately find it in my binoculars
not far off the bow,and got good looks for the tens of seconds in which it
was in view before I lost sight of it due to its nearness to the ship.

Its belly was bright white, with black on the upper chest, and white on the
face. The upper parts were gray, and it lacked white on the rump. I didn't
note a white throat, but I believe Nanette did.  She described the bill as
dark in contrast to the throat.  The wings had quite bright carpal bars. It
was about the size of the Leach's Storm-Petrels.  Only HORNBY'S STORM-PETREL
is consistent with what we certainly saw on this bird.  The first
photographic record of the species was in 2005 off California, and there
have been other sight records of the species off the west coast of the U.S.

Off northern Coos County a group of six dark-rumped petrels came in front of
the ship, and remarkably, stayed ahead of the ship for perhaps 5 minutes.
They were somewhat larger than the Leach's, flew more deliberately than the
Leach's and had shallower wing beats than the Black or Markham's seen
earlier.  Their over-all color was paler gray than the dark Leach's, but
much darker than the Fork-tailed SPs.  We soon identified them as ASHY
STORM-PETRELS.  None of us had remembered that Ashy SPs have paler gray
sides of their tails, but awe all noticed and commented on that aspect as we
looked at the birds.   I first described them as having pale flanks despite
their dark rumps.  Based on their flight style Owen was convinced that the
earlier distant birds that had seen were also Ashy SPs, and he later saw one
when I was off the deck off of Douglas County.

North of Douglas County the great numbers of birds dropped off.  We saw a
LAYSAN ALBATROSS off of Lincoln County, a few more TUFTED PUFFINS, hundreds
of SOOTY SHEARWATERS, 2 more PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERS, more SABINE'S GULLS,
more BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSSES, frequent N. FULMARS, a few FORK-TAILED SPs, 1
LEACH'SSP, etc.


Notes:  Owen used image-stabilized 20 X tripod-mounted binoculars.  The rest
of us used 10 X binoculars, and scopes mounted on tripods.

It was in all a very exciting and tiring trip.  Our weather off Oregon was
good, with light over-cast and sunny periods.  The seas had moderate 1 to 4
foot swells, and usually no white caps at all.  We only had a few
sprinklings of rain, although we could see rainy patches in the distance at
times.   It was cold though.

The Ocean Princes was the best ship for birding that I have been on.  The
front deck was low (about 35 feet above the water?),and was covered.

For the first time on my six birding cruises, Black-footed Albatrosses
actually followed the ship for many miles - which brought comments from
non-birders on-board.

We saw many presumably HUMP-BACKED WHALES, and breaching PILOT WHALES that
came all the way out of the water (species determined by some sea mammal
enthusiasts we talked with - I will check my mammal book).  A shark was
seen, as were two Japanese glass floats.
Risso's (spelling?) Dolphin were seen off northern Cal.  Unidentified
dolphin were seen off Oregon.

I can now confirm that it is possible to be seasick on a ship of over 1,000
feet in length.  Fortunately that condition did not last very long after the
rough start to the morning off California. Some passengers mentioned having
been nearly thrown out of their beds during the night.

Enough for now.


Jeff Gilligan
Portland