I Took the One less Traveled By: My First Pelagic Trip

Black-footed Albatross

I need to tell people about this because it was amazing! Even though I'm talking about it a month later (oops better late than never). If you didn't hear about it from me already, I went to Washington state on my final weekend of summer, and my main focus was my first pelagic trip! Now, some of you are thinking "What is that?" For a birder, a pelagic trip is a rare opportunity to find seabirds that spend most of their lives traveling the open ocean in search of food. They know to follow boats and ships because the refuse and discarded bait and/or catch is an easy meal for such a lone traveler, and this allowed for some close ups of amazing birds! Not to mention the whales, sea lions, and other marine life that you may see. Now I can write a whole novel on my trip if I wanted to, but I wouldn't want to bore y'all, so I'll try to simplify it as best as I can.

Pink-footed Shearwater

I was at the boat at 5am before the sun rose, and the seas were rough on the way out with good 10 foot waves. This shallow water area was a haven for hundreds of Common Murres and Pigeon Guillemots (relatives of puffins), Sooty Shearwaters, Heermann's Gulls, and Brown Pelicans. We also passed huge Oceanic Sunfish (google it!) sunning themselves on the surface before diving into the depths to feast on jellyfish. We then started to get into deep water species, the real oceanic birds, about 15 miles out into the Pacific. Pink-footed Shearwaters began to outnumber the Sooties, and Northern Fulmars were more abundant then the gulls following the boat. We even saw several Flesh-footed Shearwaters which were a rare treat for all of us on the boat. Shearwaters and Fulmars belong to a family of birds called Tubenoses. Their nostrils make a funnel at the base of the bill and helps them smell out a potential meal from miles away, a nifty adaptation for life in the open sea (this is a rare gift because most birds lack a sense of smell). Then I saw my personal favorite of the trip, the Black-footed Albatrosses! Large seabirds with a wingspan up to 9 feet, they are an endangered species that breed on the islands of Hawaii and spend years out in the ocean. There were many long distance travelers from opposite ends of the earth. The Shearwaters breed in New Zealand and other islands of the southern oceans, and the Fulmars probably bred on islands off western Canada and Alaska. Other long distant travelers I saw were South Polar Skuas spending their Antarctic winter in our summer while Sabines Gulls, Arctic Terns, Long-tailed and Pomarine Jagears, and Red-necked Phalaropes flying south to avoid our winter. And my Father made them to navigate thousands of miles of ocean... just amazes me! There were also pods of Pacific White-sided and Right Whale-dolphins that followed our boat, and to see them out in the wild and behind a tank at SeaWorld was awesome! We reached our point 35 miles out at sea to chum for birds. Here, small Fork-tailed Storm Petrels darted around like swallows (they're roughly the same size too). On the way back, we encountered several Humpback Whales. They were truly behemoths! One of them breached for all of us, and the sight of a giant animal lifting it's body out of the water and crashing back into the waves made my adrenaline run! We finally were back in port where I was greeted by pelicans, gulls, and cormorants. It was truly an experience I will never forget!

Humpback Whale

I'm sure I'll tell you more details in person, but if you ever want to see marine life and amazing seabirds, book a pelagic trip, and don't be afraid of seasickness (hint: move with the boat not against it). I guarantee you'd never regret it!

Verse of the day: " But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD laid on him the iniquity of it all." Isaiah 53: 5-6 (ESV)

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