A Pelagic Birding Tour Around the Channel Islands
My first “serious boat ride”, my first pelagic tour, my first captive birding adventure. It was quite a day. Calm waters, lots of fog, a half-capacity boat, and over twelve hours of bobbing, racing, and chasing birds. Oh, and dodging Navy bomb testing! It was quite a day.
We stayed in a cozy little AirBnB the night before, so we could be at the boat very early. It was cloudy, foggy, chilly, and we weren’t sure how this was going to go. We had our bags packed with camera gear, lunches, snacks, coffee, water, binoculars, and a field guide. This pelagic birding adventure was hosted by Island Packers, which runs all of the boats out to the Channel Islands.
As a newer birder, I was a bit intimidated at the start. I could hear others around me, many who seemed to know each other already, talking about past trips and expectations of what we’d see. We were sort of “outsiders” coming from Orange County, but there was a guy on the boat all the way from Brazil, so he won for distance traveled. I had researched a little about what birds we might see, but also wanted to leave it up to the experience, so I was feeling a bit behind the line with all of these other birders.
I tried to let that anxiety go as we boarded the boat and were introduced to our captain and crew. Much to our surprise, the boat had a little kitchen, with warm and cold beverages and snacks (which we greatly appreciated later in the day)!
The boat ride started fairly soon after boarding, and I won’t pretend to know where we went. We got some beautiful views of wide-open ocean and some views of those beautiful islands sitting out in the middle of the ocean. The most surprising view of the day happened a few times – I looked around and couldn’t see land on any side of me, just open blue and a blank horizon. That was odd, to say the least.
Here’s a map of our route, courtesy of Captain Joel Barrett:
The trip was logged in several “legs”, but basically, we left Ventura Harbor, passed Anacapa Island, out into the deep waters and Santa Cruz Basin, past San Nicolas Island, then right up to Santa Barbara Island and back to the harbor. The day started out with thick fog but gave way to open skies and good light, then back to that thick fog. When we got back in the harbor after twelve hours, it was a creepy level of fog, especially being on a boat. For the most part, there was light wind and comfortable temperatures (though I was glad to have been wearing layers to adjust throughout the day).
Anytime a birder sees a new bird for their “life list”, it’s called a “lifer”. A lot of the birders on this trip got a couple or a few, but I’d have to say that almost every bird was a lifer bird for me! It’s a whole different world of birds out on the ocean, especially on the Channel Islands, and in the deeper waters.
One of the coolest bonuses of this boat trip for me was the amazing marine mammal sightings that we had. We saw a Minke Whale, a Humpback Whale, Long-beaked Common, Risso’s and Bottlenose Dolphins, and a Cuvier’s Beaked Whaler (which I had never even heard of!). We also saw a young Great White Shark, just feet from the boat! That was a “wow” for me! Oh, and an octopus showed up, and one of the boat guys pulled it up in a net for us to get a better look.
The craziest part of the day was when the bird guides caught sight of a potentially very rare bird, and the boat went on the chase. Nearly 20 minutes of chase, trying to get a good enough look, had us wondering where the heck we even were out in the water! That chase took our boat into a military missile test zone, so the chase had to end, and we had to hurry back where we came from. The bird was apparently too fast and kept a good distance, so it was tough to confirm, but wow, the bird crew was so excited!
The bird highlight for me was the Brown Booby, which we saw a lot of. Several flying around the boat caught the attention of everyone, but then we floated just off of Santa Barbara Island and there were so many of them. They sit on the cliff edges of the islands, where they have been nesting for the last few years, or soar around, and they are really fun to watch. These birds have some of the cutest faces I’ve seen on birds!
We had a great time on this trip. It was a new experience to be on a boat for that long, and to be with some serious birders. I definitely appreciated the opportunity to see some birds that I would never see on land and enjoyed the views and the other animals that we encountered.
Twelve hours is a long time on a boat, though, and getting in the car to drive home afterward was an interesting experience. As long as we were moving, we felt okay, but as soon as we got home, we almost fell over in the garage. I guess it’s something called “sea legs”, but we were wobbly and dizzy, and even laying down to go to sleep, we couldn’t stop the swaying in our brains. It was an interesting feeling that we still laugh about today!
The Channel Islands is an absolutely beautiful place, one we will definitely be returning to, and hopefully next time, we will set foot on an island or two.
