It’s Sunday, and John Avise is back with photos, this time of seabirds he saw while pretending to look for whales. John’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
Whale-watching Trips Part 5. Seabirds
Truth be known, I especially enjoy whale-watching trips for the opportunities they present to see some pelagic (open-ocean) seabirds. This week I continue the Southern California “Whale-watching” series by sharing my photos of several avian species that are sometimes seen on these offshore nature excursions. It’s usually hard to get good photos of such birds because the distances tend to be great and the boat is always moving.
Ashy Storm-petrel (Oceanodroma homochroa):
Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla):
Black-vented Shearwater (Puffinus opisthomelas):
Black-vented Shearwater, flying 😂:
Brandt’s Cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus):
Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster):
Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), adult:
Brown Pelican, juvenile:
Buller’s Shearwater (Ardenna bulleri). This species nests in New Zealand but then, amazingly, travels across the Pacific as far as the U.S. West Coast:
Buller’s Shearwater, flying:
Cassin’s Auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus):
Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens), 1st winter plumage:
Good birds.
Nice photos. Thanks!
This set I’m particularly struck by the background … look at the clear textures, evoking/suggesting the weather, conditions, time of day mood… I can almost smell it sometimes! And the reflections hints (like the Auklet) are just like icing on the cake…
like a study of backgrounds hidden in a study of birds hidden in a whale watch
🐋
“I can almost smell it sometimes!” I get that, too. Photo #8 of the juvenile Brown Pelican, especially! I can smell the saltwater, feel the cool moisture in the air. I love pictures that do that.
Thanks, John.
Beautiful. The birds are moving, the boat is moving, the sea is moving—but the camera stops the action.
All amazing. I don’t know how you get such comprehensive sets of pictures!
Great photos! Minor point…I believe the “authorities” have now split Brown Booby into two separate species, and the one off the west coast is now called Cocos Booby. Still a gorgeous bird.
Right you are! I’d forgotten abot this recent naming split. At the time I photographed this bird (in about 2006), it was only about the fifth documented record for this very rare species complex in Southern California waters.
Well done!
Cool!
I love pelicans. Used to see them all the time when I lived in Central California.
The photo of the juvenile brown pelican is very nicely composed.
Hey Jerry,
I love the photos, but has anyone ever complained that, once you’re in the series, there’s no way to tell if a caption refers to the photo above it or to the one below it? A simple difference in spacing above and below the captions would solve this problem.
All the positive comments above apply, and the linked descriptions are thought-provoking. The wildlife photos are a relaxing feature of this site.