My crazy work schedule found me in Palo Alto for a few days after Labor Day weekend. While there, I happened to check Shearwater Journeys' pelagic schedule and found that they were running a trip out of Bodega Bay on Friday the 7th. It was unlikely that my business dealings would conclude in time, but, on the off-chance that they would, I made tentative plans to head up there Thursday night to crash at Steve Howell's place and go on the trip. As luck would have it, I was able to wrap up in Palo Alto at 10:30 Thursday, so I headed up and got to Steve's place around 12:30 for a brief night's sleep before we headed to the dock. I have been on nearly 50 pelagic trips, and this one is hard to top. The sea conditions were calm, and the wildlife spectacle made me feel like I was in a National Geographic video, apparently mostly due to a large krill bloom. Highlights were too numerous to list, but included: Wedge-tailed Shearwater (less than ten previous N.A. records; I was lucky to be standing in the right place (right next to Steve H. and Brian Sullivan who both spotted it) to see it well, as most participants didn't.) Numerous Black-footed Albatrosses plus one Laysan 4000+ Ashy Storm Petrels (most of the world population), plus small numbers of Blacks, Fork-taileds, and Wilson's Jaegers and skuas behind the boat all day (including all four species at one time) 160 Sabine's Gulls 2500 Red-necked and 500 Red Phalaropes Hundreds of Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters Good numbers of Buller's Shearwaters, plus a few Flesh-footed Shearwaters Arctic Tern 80 or so Northern Fulmars 3 Tufted Puffins in addition to good numbers of the regular alcids Breaching Humpback Whales Blue Whale (huge!!!!) Stellar's Sea Lion (endangered species) I'm sure I'm forgetting some things. I shot over 300 pictures on the day. Afterwards, Steve and I stopped on the way back to look for a reported Yellow Wagtail but didn't find it. I've posted around 50 pics (including a good number of jaeger and skua shots of different plumages) in a gallery here: http://csloan.smugmug.com/ I did a couple of pelagics out of Hatteras NC over Labor Day weekend (a planned trip) and will post some photos from that trip soon, as well as a number of shorebird pics taken on the off day. Regards, Chris Sloan Nashville, TN =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________