Update- there are 3 chicks/ fledglings. Found in the Blue Jacaranda tree at 2066 Eagle Ave in Alameda. I got a pic of the 3 fledgelings and some audio but will have to return at a later time for more media.
Best,
Chris Waterman
Alameda, CA
Just found another 2 chicks being fed in alameda, same tree where I found chicks on 5/30. Corner of Willow and Eagle im city of Alameda. Heading back to get some pics.
Chris Waterman
Alameda, CA
Hi All,
As Alvaro just posted about, this Summer off California has been HOT with good birds! Not only is there a huge pulse of Cook's Petrels off our coast that has been ongoing for at least 3 weeks (including hundreds off our coast in late June), there are also well above average numbers of Scripps' Murrelets and many other pelagic goodies.
Traditionally, late July is THE TIME for mega-rarity seabirds off of Northern California. With way fewer than 100 trips run all time in that period, the highlights have been staggering: Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, Chatham Albatross, Salvin's Albatross, Tristram's Storm-Petrel, Gray-faced Petrel, Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Great Shearwater, and Short-tailed Albatross are just some of the amazing rarities that have been found in this time period off of Northern California, not to mention it being a great time for Cook's and Hawaiian Petrels, Storm-Petrels of all kinds (last July had a trip with 7 species of Storm-Petrel!), and so much more. If you are looking for a chance at something really crazy out there, late July and early August are arguably the best times of the entire year off of Northern California.
Anyways, for those interested in getting offshore we have more boats off of Northern California this July than probably ever before. In addition to the two boats Alvaro mentioned out of Half Moon Bay (July 18th, July 25th), are two trips out of Eureka, Humboldt county: July 18th with Redwood Regional Audubon Society (see
https://www.rras.org/ for more details) and July 25th with Rob Fowler (email
migratoriusfwlr@... for details), as well as July 20th out of Noyo Harbor with Noyo Pelagics (
https://noyopelagics.com/#calendar) and again on August 3rd out of Noyo as well.
These more Northernly California ports of Eureka and Noyo tend to be good for Hawaiian Petrels and other Pterodromas, rare Albatross, rare alcids and much more, and you really never know what you might see out there! Last year there were July boats off of Noyo and Humboldt with pretty great success:
If you're interested in coupling two trips to the north, Humboldt on July 18th and Noyo on July 20th are right next to each other. Not to mention, the birding on land up there can be excellent this time of year as well. Mendocino Coast Audubon Society also offers free camping for anyone participating before Noyo pelagic trips. Reach out to Noyo Pelagics for more info!
Hope to see you all out there!
Logan
Hello all
The three back-to-back trips, two to the Farallon Islands last Friday and Saturday as well as the Half Moon Bay trip on Sunday were superb. Apart from the amazing yet regular species we see in abundance on the Farallon Islands we saw a lot of unusual birds offshore. I think that if one had to back up to the 10,000-foot view, Black Storm-Petrels are well inshore and relatively easy to find. We found them inside of the Farallon Islands, and some were quite close to shore out of Half Moon Bay. Folks who seawatch should be on the lookout for them as they are closer to shore than we have ever seen them around here. The other story is that Scripps’s Murrelets seem to be out there in numbers, they are not always an easy species to pick out when weather is choppy. But we saw them on all three trips including the Farallon Island trips where we have limited time offshore. Northern Fulmar is also here in numbers that are not always this high in mid-summer. The implication is that we have birds heading to us from the south (murrelet, storm petrel) and from the north (Northern Fulmar). The behavior of the storm petrels being closer to shore than normal is surely food oriented, but we do not understand why.
Now for the unusual stuff. Friday the 3d we saw that Ancient Murrelet on the Farallon trip. Unusual, but they are being recorded in well above average numbers in various spots in California and Oregon. Again, a bird seemingly retreating from poor food areas in the north. Sunday though blew the roof off things, as this was a trip where we were able to spend time well offshore. We found 5 species of storm-petrels! They were Black, Ashy, Wilson’s, Fork-tailed and Leach’s. There were multiple Leach’s (3), which is always a difficult species for us here. Black Storm-Petrels were the most common, and this is not the long term normal, but it has happened in warm water years. We discovered that a pair of murrelets that flew by and were photographed were in fact Craveri’s Murrelets, 16 Scripps’s Murrelets were seen to highlight that they are numerous out there. But THE star of the show was Cook’s Petrels. Some of the folks who go out regularly will be amazed, flabbergasted even to hear that we saw more Cook’s Petrels than Pink-footed Shearwaters! At times flocks of Cook’s were visible sitting on the water, and some great looks were had although often they did go by at a distance. Photos below in the trip report. A total of 55 was estimated for Cook’s, and it likely was higher. Amazing. We think this situation will continue into July unless conditions change radically. A couple of folks saw a Flesh-footed Shearwater, and a nice number of Black-footed Albatross was accented by a gorgeous adult Laysan Albatross that joined in the mix. The birding was non-stop, superb. The Cook’s and Craveri’s and Laysan were in San Francisco counties. We hope that if weather allows on upcoming trips, we can look for these birds in both counties. We also had some superb marine mammal watching, but the best was a Blue Whale that decided to actually circle our boat. Just fantastic!
Given that our July 18 trip heading offshore is sold out and we sense there is great interest to get out there, we have added a trip out of Half Moon Bay on July 25 on the New Captain Pete. You can book on the link below.
https://www.alvarosadventures.com/pelagic-dates-2026.html
Trip reports for the three trips are below:
Friday Farallon Is
https://ebird.org/tripreport/546980
Saturday Farallon Is.
https://ebird.org/tripreport/547008
Sunday offshore
https://ebird.org/tripreport/547114
Good birding.
Alvaro Jaramillo
alvaro@...
www.alvarosadventures.com
Kathy,
With distinct streaking on the flanks and whitish (rather than pink) wingbars, this is a House Finch.
Teale Fristoe
Berkeley
Please, Can anyone tell me. Is this a purple finch on my feeder in Orinda today? My iphone changed the color a little. It was not quite this rasberry.
Kathy
A water source, especially one that makes a little bubbly sound, will definitely add enticement to you deck. And fresh water is always welcome by birds.
Even a tiny fountain will be heard a far ways
Cheers,
Jennifer Fury
Saltwater is the cure for everything, sweat, tears, or the sea 🌊
Hilary,
The birds in your neighborhood likely already have found reliable sources of food that they are depending on. They will return and return as long as that source lasts. That is why it is taking longer than you like for them to find your feeder. However, As more chicks leave the nest, both young and parents will disperse to look for new supplies. Many nests are fledging chicks already so I don't think you will need to wait too much longer before you become their favorite new source. They will come.
Jeff Manker
Alameda
How long does it take birds to notice a new feeder?
I hung a feeder with black oil sunflower seed on the balcony (my
first ever) of my new apartment a few days ago. Nada. So yesterday I
hung a stem of artificial flowers on it in the hope of attracting
some attention... and a few hours later a hummingbird came up and
seesawed back and forth nearby, then I swear it sneered at me
through the window before darting off.
So that didn't work. Is there anything but patience that I can try?
--
--
~ Hilary Powers - Hilary@... - Oakland CA ~
~ www.salamanderfeltworks.com; www.Etsy.com/shop/SalamanderFeltworks ~
~ Now a member of the the Oakland Cottage Industry Collective! ~
~ Needle Felted Sculpture - Real and Fantasy Creatures ~
One more nugget on Pycroft's:
The BoW range map showing Pycroft's N of the equator took into account specimens of Pycroft's collected by Larry Spear and further reports by them in Hawaiian waters by Larry Spear and Rich Rowlett:
https://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/birds/rlp-monograph/pdfs/02-Galliformes-Procellariiformes/PYPE.pdf
We chose to treat these Hawaii reports as hypothetical (w/o photos) but Larry was rather convinced of these and others in the tropical north Pacific, and was by far the expert on Pterodroma at the time. All the more reason to keep Pycroft's on the radar among Cook's in summer (and winter off Humboldt!).
Cheers, Peter
Logan et al.
FANTASTIC!!!!!!! Wish I could have been there. Hey, with numbers like that you gotta wonder if it is possible that a Pycroft’s Petrel could be in there. My experience with Pycroft’s in New Zealand is that they are extremely similar to Cook’s and unless you are specifically looking for them, live or in photos, you would not realize it. Check out eBird, vs Birds of the World. BOW has them spending the non-breeding season out in the north Pacific. Yet there NO records on eBird north of the equator. As in NONE. Obviously, this bird is not looked for away from the breeding areas, it just blends in and is lost once it moves north. I mention it, so that folks that have photos might want to scour their images and see if any birds are slightly darker with slightly different structure etc.
Just wanting to help make your trip a tad more awesome 😊. Check the photos for Pycroft’s. Eventually one will show up if the north Pacific is indeed their wintering area. It is all quite unclear.
Alvaro
Alvaro Jaramillo
alvaro@...
www.alvarosadventures.com
Great report, congratulations! , and thanks for the excellent details.
Cheers,
Jennifer Fury
Saltwater is the cure for everything, sweat, tears, or the sea 🌊
Hi all,
Yesterday, 6/21 was a bodega pelagic everyone on board will remember for a long time. We embarked on the Surf Scooter, a boat that has lived in Bodega Harbor for years in the shadow of it's larger cousin the New Sea Angler. We left the harbor at 7am. June has always been a neglected time on the water off of Northern California, and a time that holds more intrigue and promise than almost any other to me. As we departed, we were greeted by flat birdless waters punctuated only by Common Murres and Pelicans for the first few miles offshore had some of us grumbling about the fear of a dead, slow June trip. But all this stopped when screams came out of "passerine!!" The boat stopped and we watched a tattered-looking passerine, seemingly a warbler circling the boat. After a minute or so of confusion as to it's identity it came close by the boat and we realized we were looking at a YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER! The bird circled for about 5 minutes, taunting us and considering landing on the boat but eventually giving up and flying back east. We were in shock. We had already seen what we assumed would be the rarest bird of the day, and it wasn't even 8am! There is just a single previous record of Yellow-throated Warbler for Sonoma county, and this was the first to be photographed. Unbelievable.
As we charged offshore life picked up, a (summering?) Red-necked Phalarope flopped around about 10 miles off, and our first Pink-footed Shearwaters and Black-footed Albatross appeared. Then, about 20 miles off when we were reaching Bodega Canyon shouts came out of a Pterodroma: a COOK'S PETREL had appeared at the horizon! We waited around for a while. Some albatross came by, but with some patience we found several more Cook's Petrels.
We headed south and off of the continental shelf. What would ensue in the next hour was one of the most magical pelagic experiences I have ever encountered. A few miles from Bodega Canyon, we hit a wall of birds. Most were Sooty Shearwaters, but LOTS were COOK'S PETRELS! Dozens turned into hundreds, and before long we had seen upwards of 200 COOK'S PETRELS in one 45-minute stretch!! It had been years since Cook's had been seen from Cordell and Bodega, and this was a county bird for almost everyone on board. Through all of this, we picked up our first couple LAYSAN ALBATROSS for the trip as well as an interesting June first-summer LONG-TAILED JAEGER and several Ashy and Black Storm-Petrels.
As we proceeded south the Cook's thinned out somewhat but the birdlife did not. A FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER made a quick pass my the boat and our first pair of SCRIPPS'S MURRELETS were found on the water. As we neared the area right off Cordell Bank, the farthest area offshore we would reach today, we found a feeding frenzy of several Storm-Petrels. Among them was a small, blackish, white-rumped, short- and square-tailed bird that caught our attention. After a quite a bit of study, we concluded that the bird appeared to be a TOWNSEND'S STORM-PETREL, a potential first record for Sonoma/Marin and the farther north the species has ever been seen! It allowed good views for all, and eventually drifted off. We will be sending photos of the bird off for further discussion in the coming weeks.
The return leg was suitably spectacular. We re-entered the COOK'S PETREL zone, with hundreds all around us for over an hour. If you scanned the horizon, you were sure to see at least a few if not a dozen or more Cook's at any given time! Flocks of 15 and 20 were found resting on the water. Amidst all the commotion, a close HAWAIIAN PETREL bombed right by no more than 30' from the boat at times, and we ran into a group of BLUE WHALES feeding among large numbers of birds. On many boats, a Hawaiian Petrel would be the talk of the day, but not today! It was during this period that someone spotted a Murrelet off the front of the boat: a GUADALUPE MURRELET! Not only is this a rarity at this date, but it is all but unknown in June. Then again, there are no June boats, so who knows....As we headed back in another white-rumped Storm-Petrel crossed by, this one a clear nominate/northern LEACH'S STORM-PETREL, and not long after a stunning breeding-plumaged RED PHALAROPE landed by the boat.
As we kept cruising inshore, a group of DALL'S PORPOISE briefly investigated our vessel. By 20 miles off, we had re-entered the pelagic desert of inshore dead waters. But, it was spiced up by the occasional shearwater raft. As we neared shore, we found a dead Humpback Whale with a few Black Storm-Petrels nearby, just 5 miles off Bodega Head! Normally the species is rarely found inshore of 15-20 miles this far north. It looks like it will be a good summer for Black Storm-Petrels off NorCal!
It was an unbelievable day out there, with the quantity of quality birds, let alone the ubiquity of Cook's Petrels and the Yellow-throated Warbler making a truly unforgettable combination. Through the day, we estimated upwards of 400 Cook's Petrels, the most anyone on board had ever seen, even off of SoCal!
For those interested in getting offshore elsewhere this season, there is a Fort Bragg pelagic on June 26th that still has available spots. Noyo is often similar to Bodega, and there could well be many Cook's out of there too, and who knows what else! If you are interested in joining the additional Cordell Banks trips like the one above, message me off-list, as there may be options for July.
A Full list of pelagic birds and mammals is here (Birds inshore of about 5 miles off not included):
COOK'S PETREL-400+
HAWAIIAN PETREL-1
Pink-Footed Shearwater-50
FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER-1
Sooty Shearwater-4000
Ashy Storm-Petrel-30
Black Storm-Petrel-10
Leach's Storm Petrel-1
putative TOWNSEND'S STORM-PETREL-1
Black-footed Albatross-50
Laysan Albatross-4
Scripps's Murrelet-2
GUADALUPE MURRELET-1-2
Pacific Loon-5
Long-tailed Jaeger-1
Western Gull-100
Heermann's Gull-10
California Gull-1
Cassin's Auklet-1500+
Rhinoceros Auklet-15
Common Murre-250
Red Phalarope-1
Red-necked Phalarope-5
YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER-1
Salmon Shark-4
Blue Shark-1
Mola Mola-2
Blue Whale-6
Humpback Whale-50+
Dall’s Porpoise-10
Northern Right Whale Dolphin-1
Full trip report here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/542027
Happy Summer!
Logan
Greetings Bay Area -
There has been a surge of interest in re-scheduling our 6/26 trip after yesterday's spectacular trip to Cordell Bank (400-500 Cook's Petrels, Hawaiian Petrel, Yellow-throated Warbler, possible Townsend's Storm-Petrel, etc.). So our trip is back on. The weather forecast is improving and is actually looking rather good for pelagic birds now, with moderate NW winds, diminishing through the day, after stronger winds on Thursday, and low swell.
If you'd like to partake in the fun, please call Anchor Charters at 707-964-4550.
https://anchorcharterboats.com/
We're all happy to be back on, and looking forward to a great trip!
Peter
Greetings Bay Area -
June has typically been the most difficult month to fill pelagic trips which means it is also one of the poorest-known months for marine bird and mammal occurrence off our shores. To wit, our May 30th and June 14th trips have turned up many surprises, in addition to lots of Murphy's Petrels, a couple of Hawaiian Petrels, and on last year's June trip, many Cook's Petrels (which are over Davidson Seamount now). Nutrient-rich upwelling and cold water continues off our coast nearshore, while nutrient-poor and warm El Nino water is moving in offshore, a situation that could well result in tropical species (boobies, tropicbirds, Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, any of several storm-petrels), coming into our zone to forage.
Our report for last Sunday's (6/14) trip is now up: https://noyopelagics.com/june-14-2026-deepwater-pelagic-birds-and-mammals/
(the top photo from the 30 May report will be switched out, if not already).
A white-bellied Murphy's Petrel was the talk of the trip, but we also had many Laysan Albatrosses, a Black Storm-Petrel, South Polar Skua, Tufted Puffin, surprise Ancient Murrelets headed north, and some great marine mammal sightings and action.
We are now recruiting for our June 26th trip to make it a go. In summer our captain makes most of his annual salary fishing, and so we have to make sure we get enough sign-ups to make it worth his while. As of now, scholarships for students to go for free are now available (contact Tim Bray, cc'd above) and Mendocino Coast Audubon has reserved a camp site at MacKerricher State Park for the night before the trip that all are welcome to use (contact Roger Adamson, above). Please consider coming up to enjoy the coast and to see what we can see offshore.
https://noyopelagics.com/
Cheers, Peter
Hello all,
Boy, it was a fantastic way to start the Farallon season. The breeding birds on the island are insane right now, in terms of numbers. The team of Eli Gross, Liam Murphy and John Tsortos estimated over 300,000 Common Murres seen. This is the norm at this time of year, fledging will begin closer to July and into early August. This is more individual birds than you may see in the rest of the year combined. One of the stars of the show, Tufted Puffin was more common than usual for an early trip, with 26 seen. The Cassin’s Auklets, Rhinoceros Auklets and Pigeon Guillemots made a showing as they usually do. California Sea Lions, Steller’s Sea Lions and Northern Fur Seals are visible at this time of year as well.
The offshore portion of the trip was unforgettable for the fact that a pod of Killer Whales showed up at the same time as Blue Whales. Two of the world’s most iconic marine, heck…. Mammals in general, seen at the same time! The folks at the California Killer Whale project let us know the identities of three of the whales: “CA 223s: specifically, CA223 (first seen 2005), CA223A (first seen 2009), and CA223b (first seen 2023). They were last seen in 2024 with sightings coming from Monterey Bay, Morro Bay, and Mendocino.” Killer Whales/Orcas are always a fantastic find, while we live in a good area for them, it takes luck to find them. Fin Whale, Pacific White-sided Dolphin and Grey Whale were found as well. Birds offshore included a surprise early set of Black Storm-Petrels, this year we expect a lot of Black Stormies as they more north when the water warms too much for them in the south. This is happening this year. Northern Fulmar are still hanging around, and there was a good showing of Sooty and Pink-footed shearwaters along with the king of the offshore in central California – Black-footed Albatross.
Absolutely a fantastic trip. The weather forecast is good right now for Sat June 20, and we have several open spots on the Outer Limits, a stable and comfortable catamaran that leaves from Sausalito:
https://www.alvarosadventures.com/pelagic-dates-2026.html
The eBird trip report is below for June 13. Take a look at the photos, some superb views of puffins and albatross!
https://ebird.org/tripreport/538939
Look forward to seeing what else we find as the season progresses.
Alvaro Jaramillo
alvaro@...
www.alvarosadventures.com
Yes, Turkey Vulture go after eggs and babies, which is why they are mobbed by parent birds who chase them and pull their feathers out. It seems that only Osprey are left alone since they eat only fish.
Bev Von Dohre
Friday I was out at the Albany Bulb to see what birds are left after many have migrated out. As I was getting ready to leave I heard the warning call of an American Avocet. Then I saw a pair of Avocets fly up and mob a Turkey Vulture flying over the mudflats. So I scanned the mudflats just north of the entrance road and there were four small Avocet chicks feeding in the shallow water. One of the parents, probably the female kept an eye on them, but didn’t really interact with them.
So, I wonder if they were being overly protective or might a Turkey Vulture be a threat to the tiny chicks.
Photo of the Avocet and one of the chicks
Also I did an eBird report and managed to add it retroactively to the California Bird Atlas. That isn’t so easy.
Claude Lyneis
cmlyneis@...
Friday I was out at the Albany Bulb to see what birds are left after many have migrated out. As I was getting ready to leave I heard the warning call of an American Avocet. Then I saw a pair of Avocets fly up and mob a Turkey Vulture flying over the mudflats. So I scanned the mudflats just north of the entrance road and there were four small Avocet chicks feeding in the shallow water. One of the parents, probably the female kept an eye on them, but didn’t really interact with them.
So, I wonder if they were being overly protective or might a Turkey Vulture be a threat to the tiny chicks.
Photo of the Avocet and one of the chicks
Also I did an eBird report and managed to add it retroactively to the California Bird Atlas. That isn’t so easy.
Claude Lyneis
cmlyneis@...
Hello,
I’m new to this group, thanks to an invitation from my friend Marissa Ortega-Welch. Happy to be here!
I wanted to share that I’ve had an interesting visitor in my backyard the last couple of days. At first I only got fleeting looks as it flew off and I wondered if it was an exceptionally rusty-colored California Towhee (with a long tail).
But this morning I got a good look and some photos and it appears to be a Brown Thrasher. It kept perching above my suet feeder, maybe not sure how to get the suet. Also hopping around on the lawn and pecking in the dirt, then flying into nearby bushes/trees, then off.
You can’t see from the photo, but the eye is yellow.
Enjoy!
Tyche
Good morning, birders!
My friend has had a brown thrasher in her Berkeley backyard for the last couple days! From eBird, it looks like this is a fairly rare sighting for Alameda County?
She lives in W Berkeley near Dwight between San Pablo and Sacramento so keep an eye out if you are in that area. She's not necessarily interested in hordes of birders visiting her yard, but she wanted the community to know about the sighting. I encouraged her to post on eBird.
Thanks,
Marissa