Pelagic sea birding outings are truly outings in to the land from the unknown and unpredicted, a land of question and wonderful things that is the key reason why they're so addicting. Who knows what you should find "available" simply a couple of miles in the Gulf of Mexico.
One sunny June morning Peter Ginsburg, Commander, USN (ret) and that I were bird watching with Dork Povey on his 21-feet Parker fishing-boat. No sooner were we five miles offshore whenever we spotted a massive feeding flock of gulls, pelicans, cormorants and terns. We motored to locate an amazing spectacle: several acres of suction-cupped tentacles sticking out 24 inches above the top of ocean, waving backwards and forwards, appearing for just two seconds then submerging, simply to come back another later -- a surreal Alice's Adventures In Wonderland spectacle of 100s of red-brown "tentacle shrubbery" waving within the wind.
Neither Dork nor Pete had ever observed this kind of event within their combined half a century at ocean. They were most likely Humboldt Squid -- also called Giant Squid -- that typically inhabit depths of 2,000 ft but had obviously driven/adopted a college of bait seafood towards the surface -- and also the wild birds were getting an area day. Fundamental essentials kinds of mind-dazzling moments you discover only when you are "available."
The Gulf of Mexico is really a huge, virtually untouched frontier, enormous beyond comprehension, replete with rarely seen and little understood wild birds. Stretching west 100 miles underneath the waves, Los Angeles consists of submarine side rails, domes and banks which create wealthy existence-zones that draws in an assorted and wealthy range of seabirds: albatross, shearwater, petrels (particularly, pterodroma petrels), storm-petrels, auklets and murrelets.
Additionally towards the existence zones, the advantage from the continental shelf is how we discover rarely seen seabirds (wild birds like Laysan Albatross, Red-colored-charged Tropicbird, Murphy's Petrel, Cook's Petrel, Flesh-footed Shearwater) and mega-rarities (Short-tailed Albatross, Hawaiian Petrel, Stejneger's Petrel, Mottled Petrel, Bulwer's Petrel, Streaked Shearwater, Red-colored-tailed Tropicbird). Trying to find these rarely-seen rarities may be the ultimate treasure search.
When at ocean, the sun's rays, the breeze,the increases, the gentle rocking from the boat can put one out of trance a sense of coming to one using the sea and existence itself. Bird watchers who enjoy pelagics savor the taste from the ocean touched using the imminent feeling of discovery. This site is devoted for them.
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Albatrosses, giant squid, shearwaters, Harbor Closes, murres, mola mola, fulmars, fast Minke Whales, Mew Gulls, scratched up Risso's Whales, leucistic Black-venting Shearwaters, Grey Whales, California Ocean Lions, California Flying Seafood, skipjack, enormous Blue Whales, Albacore, jaegers, Elephant Closes, Brown Boobies, breaking Humpback Whales, Skua (the pelagic predator from the sky), Sei Whales, alcids, Common Dolphin, kittiwakes, Bottlenose Dolphin, Blue-footed Boobies, albatrosses, Off-shore Whitened-on the sides Dolphin, phalaropes, swordfish, Fin Whales, pelicans, oystercatchers, cormorant, Guadalupe Fur Closes, Arctic Terns - every trip yields a never-ending variety of natural miracles never witnessed by individuals who rarely venture using their tv sets.
