Whales and Condoors

Today we had all been booked on a Whale watching trip run by Monterey Bay Whale Watch. Unfortunately Michelle was not up to it, so I went with the boys, leaving her to rest in the hotel. The trip was enjoyable, though slightly disappointing in that they managed to pick up a pod of Killer Whales and spent nearly the whole time concentrating on these. This would have been great had we not had good views of these creatures a couple of years ago off Vancouver Island. Killer Whales are not often seen on these trips apparently which is why they spent so much time looking at them, but we would have preferred searching for other species. We did get good views of a Humpback and apparently no other whales were seen by any other groups. The trip ended at:

Black-footed Albatross x 3
Sooty Shearwater x 1000s
Pink-footed Shearwater x 50?
Brandt's Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Western Grebe
Black Turnstone
Red-necked Phalarope
Sabine's Gull x 2
Heermann's Gull
Western Gull
Elegant Tern
Common Murre
Pigeon Guillemot
Cassin's Auklet x 5
Rhinoceros Auklet x 2
Sea Otter
Californian Sealion
Harbour Seal
Common Dolphin
Killer Whale
Harbour Porpoise
Humpback Whale

     

Meeting up with Michelle who was feeling slightly better, we dropped her off at Carmel (the worst signposted town in North America) before we headed south down the Big Sur to have another go for Californian Condor. Within only ten minutes we managed to pick up a distant juvenile and Sam also picked up our first ever Coyote! Unfortunately Tom got very poor views of the Condor and wasn’t happy ticking it, so we continued south for another half hour or so before eventually turning round to collect Michelle. Still no Condors. Picking up Michelle in Carmel (where we had good views of Red-Shouldered Hawk), we went on the 17 Mile Drive until nightfall, seeing more Sea Otters and the usual sea birds, before we headed off to McDonalds for dinner.

At Sea (California)
25 August 2012
Black-footed Albatross, Sooty Shearwater, Pink-footed Shearwater, Brandt's Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Brown Pelican, Western Grebe, Black Turnstone, Red-necked Phalarope, Sabine's Gull, Heermann's Gull, Western Gull, Elegant Tern, Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Cassin's Auklet, Rhinoceros Auklet

Big Sur
25 August 2012
Brandt's Cormorant, Brown Pelican, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Turkey Vulture, California Condor, Heermann's Gull, Western Gull, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Common Raven, American Crow, Western Scrub-Jay, Barn Swallow, European Starling, Brewer's Blackbird