Ken Brown and I went on a pelagic birding trip from Sept 5-9, 2022 on the Searcher, a +/-96 foot wooden boat out of San Diego. This is an annual trip, recently leaving on Labor Day each fall, and returning on the following Friday mo rning, after a partial day of birding Monday afternoon and early evening, three full days at sea, and returning early Friday morning.

And the birding was spectacular. Ken had only been at sea off San Diego once on a day trip, and had 9 reasonably likely target lifer species, and he saw ALL NINE! I had done the trip once prior, so hoped for 2 lifers, and got BOTH!. Before I give a day-by-day summary, I want to set the stage.

I had been on this trip once previously in 2016, and have been talking about the trip with Ken ever since, urging him to go with me again. The trip differs from a typical one-day pelagic trip in lots of ways.

IMO the biggest differences are that it is comparatively leisurely, it gets far offshore to many areas not possible on a one-day trip, and in that the boat if fairly large and relatively stable. In addition there are only 20 birders with 4 trip-leaders, along with the boat’s crew.
The boat is quite nice, with a kitchen, seating at 6 tables that comfortably seat 4, so meals had a first seating, with a smaller second seating. The meals were very good, and as a vegan the cook took good care of me with nice vegan alternatives to the more typical meals for the rest of the staff.
I did arrange this ahead of time with Celia, the owner and captain’s wife ahead of time
Sleeping quarters were in most cases, ours included, bunk beds that were reasonably comfortable, and there was adequate space for one person at a time to stand up, use the small sink, dress, etc. Basic sleeping quarters, but perfectly adequate.

This may sound like basic accommodations, and in some ways it was, but the overall experience on the boat was really great. The staff, from captain Art to the cooks and deck hands, were all extraordinary in every way. They kept everything moving, gave personal attention to everyone, and made the whole experience fun.

Enough of the basics. It was a birding trip, and that experience was unparalleled IMO.

Todd McGrath is the leader of a group of four extraordinary pelagic birders. Dave Pereksta and Dave Povey are the regulars, having both done the trip for more-or-less the past decade, and the invited guide this year was Jon Feenstra, an extraordinarily talented pelagic birder who also manned the ship’s loudspeaker to call out birds to us all in a remarkable bass voice that could double as a play-by-play announcer for a professional team. In a way, it was a play-by-play, or really bird-by-bird professional operation.

Todd McGrath has been leading California pelagic trips among other pelagic trips for several decades, and his attention to detail along with spotting expertise was amazing to watch. He generally manned the front of the bow, while Dave Pereksta, at maybe 6-6” (big-Dave) stood behind him looking over all of our heads. Both are fun to be around, and excelled at conversation, storytelling, and making us all feel included while constantly spotting and calling out birds as they appeared.
Dave Posey generally manned the stern, was in charge of the chum, and passengers who preferred birding from the back of the boat where you could bird and sit in lawn chairs or benches. Essentially all of us took breaks to rest and sit with Dave, and enjoyed his company and expertise.

Jon Feenstra generally manned the upper deck, helped Dave Perecki keep eBird lists, called out bird he and others saw that they called to him on walkie-talkies, and gave nice commentary on where we were, and what was happening.

After flying to San Diego Sunday afternoon, checking into a somewhat overpriced and not terribly nice Ramada by Windham hotel whose most redeeming characteristic was that it is the cheapest hotel within easy walking distance of the departure deck, we walked around the docks for a while, attended a talk by Todd to orient us to the birds and route of the trip, and had dinner.
Monday morning we met at the dock and were off by about 11AM.

The bait barge had nothing unexpected, with Heermann’s Gulls, the ever-present Western Gulls, lots of Brandt’s Cormorants and a couple Double-crested Cormorants, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, and a few other birds, we left the harbor for the trip.
The beginning of the trip went about as expected, with the first tubnoses being Black-vented Shearwaters, but we lucked out with a fly-by Manx Shearwater that most if not all of us got looks at flying past and away with it’s crisp black-and white plumage, and the more extensive white flank areas. This is species is really uncommon off SoCal, and is a species I saw as my “lifer” on a one-day trip in this area years ago.

As we headed first to 9-mile bank and then 30-mile bank (I think 9-mile bank is 9-miles long but not 9-miles from the harbor, and 30-mile bank is 30 miles out of San Diego harbor, but not 30 miles long).

These are the typical areas one-day trips our of San Diego visit, and the highlights of these places were good numbers of Least Storm-Petrels, a species often seen in very low numbers or possibly not seen on this whole trip, lots of Black Storm-Petrels, along with the recently split from Fork-tailed Storm-Petral Townsend’s Storm-Petral. All three of these species were lifers for Ken, so we were off to a great start.

As we headed into the sunset at the very end of the day, a lifer for both of us Nazca Booby flew in very close to the stern for everyone to see. My first lifer of the trip, and Ken’s fourth. This day and for most of the trip Long-tailed Jaegers were plentiful, but the other two species, Parasitic and Pomerine were scarce, and we missed South Polar Skua, an unusual miss for the trip per the leaders, but of little concern to Ken and me because we see both regularly in WA on the Westport Seabirds trips.

We cruised for a while at night, and anchored near Sutil Island off Santa Barbara, which is the best place in the ABA area to see boobies. Boobies are a cool family of birds, Sulids, that are sort of goofy looking, that I think of a “pointy” in all directions; long pointy wings, a very large pointy bill, and long pointy tails.

After our usual breakfast before dawn, we approached the island, and boobies were everywhere. Brown boobies started to be seen as we approached, and were constantly seen in remarkable numbers, at times in huge flocks while at other times perching on the island in big numbers.

The leaders quickly spotted a Blue-footed Booby in a favorite roosting spot, and we all got on the bird well. We spent over an hour studying and admiring the boobies, finding the hybrid Blue-foot x Brown Booby 2-year old bird, seeing the males of this subspecies (brewsterii) with it’s frosty white head feathering, and looking for but not finding a Red-footed Booby that have sometimes been seen at the island. This is the only known nesting area of Blue-footed Boobies in the ABA area, and it is thought that there are two nesting pair on the island. I think we saw 4 BFBO plus the hybrid.
I was a little anxious that I might miss my second hoped for lifer on the trip, but Todd seemed confident we’d see one somewhere on the trip.

For the rest of the day we continued to have good birds, including Sabine’s Gulls and both Common Terns. Craveri’s Murrelets were seen at close range on the water and in flight several times.

We woke on day 3 to head out to deep waters, exploring the San Juan Seamount and other areas. It was a day of overall great birds, including Red-billed Tropicbird on the water and flying, more Nazca Boobies, and a spectacular appearance of a Red-footed Booby.

The highlight of the day for many was a Hawaiian Petrel, which probably approached the boat from the right stern area. Dave Povey called out a bird from the stern, possibly a Buller’s Shearwater. We all moved back to look for it, and after a few minutes started back to the front of the boat. Ken, Todd, Dave P. and a couple of other birders went back sooner, and spotted the Hawaiian Petrel appear from the right, arc right in front of them and head down the left side of the boat. Great excitement entailed, and as I looked from the stern was unable to find the bird as it moved away quickly. The good news is Ken got a great look, and I’d seen the bird on our repositioning cruise a few years ago and didn’t miss a lifer.
For me the Red-footed Booby appearance was one of the best of the trip. Dave and Todd called out a possible dark booby flying straight at the boat a distance at 1 o’clock, and every one got on it easily, in perfect light which was from the left side of the boat. The bird was flying really fast, and as it got closer the ID as a Red-footed Booby was clear. I looked through binos, then as I put the binos down for a photo the bird was on us really fast, giving great bare-eyed looks from maybe 15 feet! I have a blurry photo of the right axilla of the bird, and a couple very backlit photos as it passed into the sun to our left. The bird was so close, and so awesome everyone was stunned.

The rest of the day and the next day gave great looks at all three murrelets, Craveri’s continued to be seen, but more Guadalupe’s were seen as we got deeper. This is the darker faced of the Xantou’s Murrelet split. On the next day we would see several Scripp’s Murrelet, the other half of the split with the more white on the face and above the eye. It was a great trip for comparing and seeing all of these three species. The other highlight of this day was a good number of Cook’s Petrels, a small buoyant petrel that visits the area in spring and summer, and this year a good number hung around for us to see.

On Day 4 we changed the route a bit because Hurricane Kay, aptly named, was moving up from the Baja area, and we needed to be in port by about midnight rather than 8 AM on day 5. Everyone was happy to avoid a really rough night at sea, and the route proved perfect.

This day we had another great Red-footed Booby experience,

with a bird with very worn tail feathers was perched on a weather bouy giving prolonged and really close looks. I hope this bird survives and was just resting and molting.
At the very end of the 4th day we came onto a cool pod of Orca Whales (Killer Whales) of the Tropical Eastern Pacific subspecies. These were enjoyed by all, and later a Blue Whale gave a great show including an apparently rare “fluke” with its huge tail as it dove. We hung there for a few minutes as the sun set, and a nice flock of storm petrels scavenged the whale debris.

A white-rumped petrel (generic description, not the species) was seen and photographed by Dave Perecki which on examining the photos was agreed to be a Band-rumped Storm Petrel, a very rare ABA visitor, (an ABA lifer for Todd McGrath shows how rare) and we spent the remaining bit of daylight looking for it. A white-rumped small bird appeared and was followed by both Ken and me that may have been the BRSP but no decent photos were obtained, and we both decided to leave the bird off our list.

I had seen a white-rumped bird earlier in the flock, which again may have been THE BIRD, but I had no idea it was not one more Townsend’s Storm Petrel at the time. It was a pretty distant range and I could not be confident it was the BRSP. Still it was a very exciting end to a wonderful trip.

We ate well again for dinner, got a shower, a bit of sleep, and woke early, about 4:50 AM for breakfast and to pack and disembark.
Ken and I both agree that if this was not the best trip we have taken together it was certainly in the top group. Ken had 9 lifers on the boat plus the Cook’s and Hawaiian Petrel. I had two.
Ken’s lifers:
Black Storm Petrel

Least Storm Petrel

Townsend’s Storm Petrel

Nazca Booby

Blue-footed Booby

Red-footed Booby

Red-billed Tropicbird

Craveri’s Murrelet
e
Guadalupe Murrelet

The Red-footed and Nazca Boobies were ABA lifers for me, with Nazca a first anywhere bird.

We spent the morning of Friday around Crown Point Park on Mission Bay enjoying Ken’s lifer Allen’s Hummingbird, Black Skimmers, shorebirds, terns and trying to stay out of the pretty steady rain.

By early afternoon the weather got worse, with no break in sight, and we gave up and went to the airport for our evening flight home. Marian picked us up at Seatac, and we got to Tacoma about midnight, happy, tired, and ready for our own beds.
A few pictures I like that didn’t fit really above.

Good birding!