Fall Pelagic Birding Tour in Orange County
I’ve become a really big fan of the boat rides out into the ocean to find birds. After my first pelagic birding trip out around the Channel Islands, I signed up for a more local pelagic out of Orange County with my local Audubon. That second trip, in January of 2020, was my last before the pandemic put everything like these trips on hold.
Finally, in October 2021, the boat rides returned! I signed up quickly and appreciated my vaccine for making something like this safe again! This fall trip was very well timed. The weather was warm, but not too warm. In fact, I tried to stay in the sun to keep warm for most of the boat ride. The shade got a bit more cold! We had bright sunny skies and it couldn’t have been better for spotting some amazing birds!
Our leader was Jon Dunn, a very knowledgable and skilled birder. He authors the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America. We had several other leaders, too, and they were all very knowledgable and helpful with ID’ing the birds we saw.
Our trip started at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point. We had a delay to our start, because just the evening before, an oil spill occurred just off the coast of Orange County. Our leaders and the boating company had to scramble to figure out what would be safe and smart, and allowed, for our day. Eventually, with a change in course for the day, we were able to get on the boat and head out.
The journey went much more south than usual, to avoid any potential run in with the oil spill. We enjoyed views of the inside and outside of the jetties in Dana Point Harbor, then went straight out to Lauren Sea Mount. From there, we went towards Crespi Knoll to have a look around, then back to Dana Point nearshore and into the harbor. The boat was well equipped for our trip, including some hot coffee and cold water to refill our bottles. There were two restrooms available. There was interior seating, so when the wind and sun just got to be too much, or in the slower bird moments, it was nice to have a place to sit and warm up. Pandemic rules still applied, so masked were worn inside or in restrooms, and lunches were enjoyed outside to keep everyone safe.
Sadly, towards the end our of day, we did come across a large oil slick on the ocean surface. We soon saw a massive rafts of birds, and it was so unsettling to see them so close to something that could kill them. The air was thick with the stink of crude, and it was painful to see that mess on our beautiful ocean.
(Gratefully, the spill was smaller than originally anticipated, and had a fairly small impact on our local wildlife. Many agencies and people came together to clean the beaches, clean the waterways, and to rescue and clean the impacted birds and wildlife. Southern California dodged a huge bullet on this spill, even though it was still gross and negligent and hurt many. Hopefully, lesson have been learned and we all work together to prevent these avoidable human-caused disasters._
This trip was full of some great sightings! It will never stop being a surprise to me that so many birds make their homes in and on the ocean and we can so easily go see them, and luckily cross paths with them!
My favorite bird on this trip was the Red-billed Tropicbird. We were all ecstatic about this sighting. It ended up being a lifer for nearly the entire group! To our great surprise, this was only the first of this species that we’d see - an entirely second bird was spotted just a while later!
Here are some photos of some of the other birds we saw on the trip:
My personal favorite bird is the Brown Pelican. Anytime I am near the ocean, I’m looking out for these big beauties. They love to play in the waves behind boats, so when we’re making our final trek back towards the harbor, I move to the back of the boat and wait for the many birds that show up to play in the wake.
The Fall 2021 Sea and Sage Pelagic trip was really great. The boat left just after sunrise and returned just before sunset, and the day was full of fun birds and great people.
Here is a link to the eBird Trip Report for the day. Oh, we even saved the ocean from some runaway balloons!
