California - Vancouver, BC Trip ~ April 28, 2015

At dawn, I loaded a couple single-serving cereal boxes, a couple apples, and a bag of Twizzlers into my backpack. Why? The breakfast hours didn't start before the birding did and you have to be afraid to leave during the day for fear of missing the best bird(s) of the trip. So, I grabbed my backpack, bins, and scope and headed to the deck to scan the ocean with about ten other birders. We were in California waters all day.

We saw a few Pomarine Jaegers with nice "spoons" at the tail tips. Unfortuantely, I only got a documentation-grade photo of one of them.

Lines of Common Murres streamed close by the ship, allowing great views.

Great numbers of Sabine's Gulls were flying north. My first Murphy's Petrel was seen off Point Reyes, California.

My 'life' Cook's Petrel was seen a little farther north, off Jenner, California.

Other birds seen that day included Common and Pacific Loons, Black-footed Albatross, Northern Fulmar, Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters, an Ashy Storm-Petrel, numbers of Red-necked Phalaropes, Arctic Tern, Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaegers, and Rhinoceros Auklet.

At sunset, we dropped our gear off in the stateroom and headed for the dining room where I proceeded to more than make up for missing breakfast and lunch.

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