The San Diego Bird Festival seabirding and whale pelagic trips aboard the 85-foot live-aboard Grande were all fantastic successes. We saw Gray Whales, Fin Whales, Humpback Whales and FOUR San Diego County Black-footed Albatrosses – all less than 14 miles from the mainland, one just 6 miles south of Point Loma and 5 miles west of Imperial Beach. How do you top that? Throw in a Auburn Booby only 2.5 miles off Point Loma and a Laysan Albatross 5 miles south of the Mexican border, 4.5 miles north of North Coronados Island, 11 miles off the coast of Tijuana and you have an incredible Bird Festival. All three trips had fantastic views of Bonaparte’s Gulls, Parasitic and Pomarine Jaegers, Xantus’s Murrelets, Cassin’s and Rhinoceros Auklets, three species of loons and three species of cormorant. The wintering Long-tailed Duck at Ballast Point was missing in action Thursday but seen on the way out and on the way back in on both Saturday and Sunday. A high count of 30 Auburn Boobies were seen on Saturday’s trip.

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