Pelagic Birding

by Mike Stiles

Birding opportunities do not end at the shoreline. This month we will explore the rewarding, but often challenging, world of pelagic birding.

Pelagic birds—the albatrosses, shearwaters, petrels, and others—are a diverse group of birds that are rarely seen by most birders. They have one thing in common—they spend most of their lives on the deep, open ocean waters, coming to shore only to breed and lay eggs. They range in size from the sparrow-sized Least Storm-Petrel to the Wandering Albatross, with a 12 foot wingspan. Some groups cannot walk on land and come ashore only at night to avoid predation. They are some of the most interesting birds on the planet and, sadly, some of the most endangered.

The albatrosses are truly the champion flyers of the bird world. They have a tendon in their shoulder that holds their wings out erect like an open pocket knife. They ride the winds without using any muscle power, and it is said they use no more energy in flight than they do sitting on their eggs. They can spend many years on the open ocean, flying most of that time, and can even sleep on the wing. They will travel several thousand miles in search of food for their chicks. It is said that a 50 year old albatross has flown nearly 4 million miles.

The albatross, like the California Condor, takes many years to reach maturity, does not nest every year, and lays only one egg when they do. Introduced predators in their breeding colonies and pollution (most notably plastic trash in the ocean) have had devastating effects. Nineteen of the 21 species of albatross in the world are threatened with extinction.

The shearwaters are another marathon migrator, flying over 40,000 miles each year, searching for the perpetual summer. They breed in New Zealand and southern Chile, and feed around Antarctica in the southern hemisphere summer. Millions of them fly north across the equator in our spring, looking for the productive feeding grounds around Japan, Alaska, and California.

Enormous clouds of Sooty Shearwaters can be seen off our central coast in the summer months. The Audubon Society and local birders get many inquiries from non-birders, astounded at the numbers of dark birds off the coastline. Interestingly, those millions of shearwaters will cross the equator, in a narrow geographic zone, in a 10 day period in October, heading back to their breeding grounds. It is estimated that 250,000 of them are eaten by native Maori each year in New Zealand.

Birds in this group are extremely long-lived. A Manx Shearwater, banded in 1953, and at least five years old at the time, was recaptured in 2003, at least 55 years old, and a banded albatross was found to be at least 61 years old.

Most of the pelagic birds are never seen from shore, so the only way to observe them is to enter their realm. Up and down the coast, birders charter boats to take them out beyond the continental shelf to find these rarely seen birds. It can sometimes be difficult to even find a bird on the open seas, so birders employ tactics to draw the birds to them. The albatrosses, shearwaters, and petrels are known collectively as tubenoses. Their nostrils are encased in tubes and they have an excellent sense of smell. Birders utilize that fact by dripping fish oils behind the boat to attract them. Popcorn is also thrown to attract flocks of gulls, which in turn can attract other birds, no doubt thinking this is a fishing vessel and looking for a handout of fish guts.

It can be very challenging to even see a bird on the vast ocean, let alone identify it, sometimes as dots on the horizon, on the deck of a rolling ship. The skill of the experienced pelagic birder never fails to amaze me. Weather, wind, and the swell (and of course seasickness) can make any pelagic trip an exercise in futility, but the rewards of catching site of these rarely seen birds are great.

The Morro Coast Audubon Society is chartering a boat for its annual pelagic trip slated for August 28th out of Port San Luis in Avila Beach. If interested email Maggie Smith. At the time of this publication, July 1st, there still may be spaces available.

Burrowing Owl on banner by Cleve Nash.