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Pelagic Birding - Channel Islands
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Channel Islands National Park
(map)
(fee)
 Directions:
Whale watching and pelagic birding trips are available through the following
charter companies: Condor Cruises: (805) 882-0088, Island Packers:
(805) 642-1393, and Truth Aquatics:
805-962-1127. Channel Islands Aviation (805)
987-1301 offers chartered flights to Santa Rosa Island.
Camping is available to
Island visitors in the Channel Islands National Park but reservations are
required and transportation is only available through authorized park
concessionaires. Scheduled boat trips depart from Santa Barbara Harbor, Oxnard
and Ventura Harbor in Ventura County. Channel Islands Aviation has flights out
of Camarillo and Santa Barbara Airports.
Photo: Prisoner's Harbor, Santa Cruz Island
Pelagic Birding
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CONDOR CRUISES
offers whale watching and trips to the Channel Islands aboard their modern, fast
75'
Condor Express catamaran. This vessel departs from Santa Barbara Harbor at
SEALanding (map).
Check their current schedule of upcoming whale watching trips, adventure cruises
to the Islands, and pelagic birding in the Channel, including deep water trips
beyond the Islands.
-
LOS ANGELES AUDUBON
offers trips around the Islands including the occasional deep-water trip
scheduled at different times during the year to provide the best birding
opportunities. Check their current pelagic trip schedule to make a reservation.
Visit
Los Angeles Audubon Society
-
SO CAL PELAGIC BIRDING
is a service of Buena Vista Audubon Society in Oceanside, CA. This web site
provides detailed information on numerous pelagic and deep water trips in
southern California waters and the Channel Islands. Visit
So Cal Pelagic
Birding
- ISLAND PACKERS,
an official concessionaire to the
Channel Islands National Park, offers
trips for whale watching, pelagic birding, and guided hiking excursions
with an Island Packers Naturalist or National Park Service Ranger. Day
trips can be scheduled for hiking on Santa Cruz, San Miguel, Santa Rosa
and Santa Barbara Islands, as well as overnight camping.
Island Packers boats depart from Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard,
and Ventura Harbor in Ventura.
- TRUTH AQUATICS
has a fleet of three dive-boats and offers trips designed for day hiking
and camping on the Channel Islands.
Truth Aquatics is an official park concessionaire. Boats depart from
Santa Barbara Harbor at Sea Landing. Check their current schedule of
Island trips.
- CHANNEL ISLANDS AVIATION
is
also
an official concessionaire to the Channel Islands National Park.
Channel Islands Aviation offers half day excursions and flights for
camping to Santa Rosa Island in the Channel Islands National Park.
Flights are scheduled year round. A flight to Santa Rosa Island is only
25 minutes away.
Rewards:
Pelagic birding in the Santa Barbara
Channel is best during the spring and fall passage of ocean birds.
Birding trips are targeted during these seasons for
optimal rewards, but taking a relatively close to shore
whale watching trip will also provide a variety of birds with the added bonus of
close-up views of migrating Gray,
Humpback, and occasionally Blue Whales and Orcas.
Birds closer to shore are those
species usually visible from land such as scoters, Brandt's and Pelagic
Cormorants, loons, grebes, gulls and terns. Arctic Tern is frequently
encountered in flocks just a short distance off the coast where they are seldom
found on shore. In summer, Sooty Shearwaters are common and number in the
thousands. They can be easily seen from shore. Black-vented Shearwater is fairly
common in fall and winter, and Buller's and Short-tailed Shearwaters are rare
but regularly encountered in county waters.
 Birds
regularly found in the Channel include: Pink-footed Shearwater, South Polar Skua,
Parasitic, Pomarine and Long-tailed Jaegers, Sabine's Gull, Xantus's Murrelet,
Cassin's and Rhinoceros Auklets, Red Phalarope, Black, Leach's and Ashy
Storm-Petrels, and Northern Fulmar (winter). Black-footed and
Laysan (rare) Albatrosses
are found well offshore. Among the more spectacular sightings in deeper offshore
county waters; Mottled Petrel,
Cook's Petrel, Stejneger's Petrel, Red-tailed
and Red-billed Tropicbirds,
Magnificent
Frigatebird,
Brown
and Masked Booby,
Tufted
and Horned Puffins,
and Parakeet Auklet. In August 2005 a first northern hemisphere record of
Ringed Storm-Petrel occurred west of San Miguel Island. This record was
accepted by the California Bird Records Committee.
Photo: Ringed Storm-Petrel,
Cornelia Oedekoven SFSC
Land bird rarities recorded on the islands (and thus
far missing on the mainland list) include Emperor Goose, Pyrrhuloxia and
Gray Vireo. There are a number of other
interesting sub-species that breed on the islands including races of Allen's
Hummingbird, Orange-crowned Warbler, Loggerhead Shrike and Pacific-slope
Flycatcher. These differ from the mainland populations. The Channel Islands area
is recognized as an Audubon Society Important Bird Area (
link ).
Island Scrub-Jay
 It
goes without saying that if you wish to see the Island Scrub-Jay it is
absolutely necessary that you spend a few
dollars to reach its home- Santa Cruz Island. It is found nowhere else in
the world. It is characterized by its darker blue plumage, larger bill and
larger size compared to its mainland relative, the Western Scrub-Jay, which is
not found on the Channel Islands. Island Scrub-Jay is most commonly seen
at Prisoner's Harbor Landing on Santa Cruz Island. They are frequently seen
close to the harbor in nearby trees.
Photo: Island Scrub-Jay, Brad Schram
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
Island Scrub-Jay -
Sibley Guides -
Don Roberson's Page -
Island Scrub-Jay BNA |
