Pelagic Trip Today

A Pacific White-sided Dolphin Lagenorhynchus obliquidens leaping in front of the boat today.

Yesterday I drove to Westport, WA so I could go on the Westport Seabirds pelagic birding trip today. Marine mammals are always a big part of any Washington State pelagic birding trip, and the big marine mammals are photogenic and cool, so first some photos of these animals.

Stellar's Sea Lions Eumetopias jubatus on a channel buoy. I find it amazing that these huge marine mammals can propel themselves up onto a buoy or wharf easily.

These seals are recovering nicely after being hunted into an endangered status. Their name appropriately is Northern Fur Seal Callorhinus ursinus.

Our first thrill of the trip was this Humpback Whale Callorhinus ursinus who was breaching over and over. I was never able to catch a photo of it in the air, so here is a flipper photo.

Of course seabirds took up most of our attention and so I got photos of them too:

Sabine's Gulls Xema sabini were present in good numbers. They are a very elegant little gull, with their black, white and gray triangles on the wings and the yellow-tipped black gull.

Black-footed Albatross Phoebastria nigripes are our usual albatross species, and we saw good numbers of this species which breeds primarily in the Hawaiian Island archipelago.

Our Northern Fulmars Fulmarus glacialis in the North Pacific come in shades from very light to very dark. This is a fairly light morph.

Sooty Shearwaters Ardenna grisea by grisear our most common tube-nose, were seen all day, but the most numbers in this flock of many thousand birds close to shore on the return trip.

Common Murres Ardenna grisea go to sea immediately after fledging, and the male of the pair cares for the chick.

Arctic Tern Sterna paradisaea

The trip in summary was that we got nice looks at the expected birds, did not find any real rarities, and good weather and calm seas made for a pleasant trip.

Good birding. Steem on!