FW: White-chinned Petrel in California Oct. 18, 2009 -Half Moon Bay

[Kris Olson]

Thought you might be intersted in this post from Alvaro Jaramillo.
(forwarded by Kris Olson)

Subject: White-chinned Petrel in California.
From: Alvaro Jaramillo <chucao AT COASTSIDE.NET>
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:30:02 -0700

Folks

I had the pleasure of being on a superb pelagic trip right out in
my
backyard, off Half Moon Bay, California yesterday. Sequoia Audubon
Society
(www.sequoia-audubon.org ).organized this
fantastic, trip - thanks Jennifer Rycenga and Gary Deghi for helping
to put
this together. To give you all some background, I have lived here over
a
dozen years and we have not had any pelagic trips until last week when
the
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (www.sfbbo.org )
organized one as a fundraiser. This trip ended up finding three
species of
albatross, Black-footed, Laysan and the ultra rare Short-tailed
Albatross.
The latter is a highly endangered with just over 2000 individuals. The
Japanese are trying to establish the albatross on several other
islands to
minimize the chance of the entire breeding population being wiped out
by
volcanic activity or a typhoon. The bird we saw was one of these
translocated albatrosses which was sporting a satellite transmitter!
It has
been great fun learning more about the travels of this bird from the
researchers, as well as its history. Amazingly we saw it off central
California and a week later it was off Vancouver Island in BC! When
they
want to move, they go.

We thought there was no way to top last Sunday's trip, yet we did!
Amazingly just after lunch time we saw a dark chocolate colored bird
with
pale bill that was coming up behind the boat. Obviously, in California
waters the default should be Flesh-footed Shearwater as the only thing
that
fits that general description. But it looked off, as it came in
closer, and
it became clear that this was a petrel in the genus Procellaria. It
was too
bulky, with a short tail, thick-neck and had the fulmar-like quality
of
looking down at an angle rather than keeping the bill straight ahead
as in
shearwaters. The default then becomes Parkinson's Petrel which has
been seen
in California, but that was wrong too!! This bird was too big, larger
than
Pink-footed Shearwater and had a dull yellow bill all the way to the
tip. I
have to admit that I had absolute goose bumps when I realized that
this was
a White-chinned Petrel, a species I know well from South America - but
in
California! We were wonderfully fortunate that the bird chose to do
some
close passes by the boat, and that with some quick chumming from Phil
the
deckhand we were able to get it interested enough in us to park itself
on
the water behind the boat. At this point all participants were able to
have
a look at the bird, and take in the features we were calling out to
identify
it. As well there were plenty of cameras on board and the bird was
duly
documented. Below is a quick site I put up with some of my photos:



http://www.birdsofchile.com/WCPE.htm

But have a look at these better photos from John Sterling and Kris
Olson:

http://sterlingbirds.smugmug.com/Animals/rareCAbirds/9709670_qqVBK#685462293
_S5g4e


http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristenolson/sets/72157622491284729/




If accepted by the California Bird Records Committee this will become
the
first for the state. Not only that, it is only the second for the
continent.
The first being a bird found moribund on the Texas coast which was
taken to
a rehab place. The bird was photographed, and actually identified
years
later as being a White-chinned Petrel rather than a Sooty Shearwater
as it
was identified at the time. This Texas record has been contentious as
the
petrel is a real cold water species, and Texas waters do not offer it
the
habitat it prefers. Suggestions were made that it may have been a bird
brought in on a ship from the south, or at least ship assisted. No one
will
ever know of course what the history of the Texas bird really was. But
it
sure is nice to find a White-chinned Petrel in cold California waters,
side
by side with species like the Pink-footed Shearwater which share its
habitat
in the Humboldt Current off Chile and Peru.


This was one of those amazing birding moments, when all came together
and we
connected with a great bird which just brought absolute happiness to
our
gang of birders. We marveled at the bird and reflected how when trying
to
explain to a non-birder what is so exciting about birding, how
attempting to
explain this particular exciting moment in our birding lives would be
difficult. All of that ocean, so much of it, and one White-chinned
Petrel
happened to cross to the wrong hemisphere and we just happened to be
where
it was, the chances of that encounter boggle the mind. But it
happened, and
wonderful things of all types happen when birding. Aren't we lucky we
have
this hobby?



Great birding,



Alvaro



Alvaro Jaramillo

chucao AT coastside.net

Half Moon Bay, California



Field Guides - Birding Tours Worldwide

www.fieldguides.com

[J. BRIAN PATTESON]

There was also a White-chinned Petrel seen off Oregon Inlet, NC on two
occasions in October 1996. The observer even got a photo, but it was a
small image, taken on 35mm film w/ a 50mm lens. It certainly looked
like a Procellaria petrel in that photo, but not surprisingly, it was
not accepted by various records committee people who might not have ever
seen a shearwater, let alone a big petrel. The observation was made by
a birder working as a fisheries observer on a squid fishing boat, and
the bird was seen twice a few days and miles apart. As I recall there
were plenty of Greater Shearwaters around, similar to a condition we
just had here off Hatteras over the weekend!

Brian Patteson
Hatteras, NC