ML34787011

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

29 total on the day!!! Two that were in shallower water in the following checklist. Managed to photograph at least one bird in 12 of the 14 sightings, many of which are posted here. All were in pairs except the first two sightings - first one was four together (two adjacent pairs) and second sighting was a single bird that flushed right in front of the boat (and may have had a second one with it that we missed?). The pair at 10:34 was only detected by the splash it made while repeatedly diving - I thought they were fish or possibly a shark at first. Even while watching the spot with binoculars while one came up and dove again, I was unable to even confirm there was actually a bird for several dives, seeing only a little splash of water flying up. One of these birds was only over 2000 feet of water but the rest were 2500 feet or more including four pairs in 4700-4900 foot deep water. All but one or two pairs confirmed as Scripps's by eliminating both Guadalupe and Craveri's through combination of face pattern (black above the eye eliminating Guadalupe, small indent of white in front of eye eliminating Craveri's) and white underwings (eliminating Craveri's which would have dusky underwings). Calm conditions definitely helped in detecting and observing these guys. It also seems to be a good year for them based on several Westport Seabirds trips recording them already this summer/fall.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D300S

ISO

1000

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/4.0

Shutter speed

1/6400 sec

Dimensions

1600 pixels x 1066 pixels

Original file size

687.47 KB