Monday we took a group of four friends from Florida and California out to Cordell Banks on a birding expedition.
The weather was great and we made 20 knots over the smooth 6 to 9 foot swells, stopping along the way in 60-80 fathoms to observe feeding flocks of Sooty Shearwaters, California Gulls, Glaucous Gulls, Rhino Auklets, one Jaeger sp., and one Pink-footed Shearwater.
As we ran across Cordell and off of the SW edge of the shelf we saw very little life. I turned NW and cruised up the 500 fathom line, hoping the birds would find us as fog surrounded us, reducing visibility to less than a quarter mile. A few Kittywakes flew by and some Cassin's Auklets scattered out of our path but we saw nothing special until we stopped to watch some friends fishing for Humbolt Squid from Russ' Skipjack 24. They were pulling these 30 to 40 lb calamari up from the bottom in 1100 feet of water, a few miles north of the Banks.
Just as we stopped, an albatross flew up behind us. I was about to call it a Blackfooted Albatross as the large, dark brown bird flew past us, but as it turned back toward us we all saw the oversized, bright pink beak of a Short-tailed Albatross!
The big bird was about 30 yards out before it turned away. It made two more such passes then slipped back into the fog.
We waited next to Russ while they boated a couple more jumbo squid, hoping our bird would come back for another look, but after 10 minutes or so I  started up and motored slowly back along our course, on the outside chance we might find it waiting for us in the fog.
Another hundred yards or so and there it was, sitting on the water in front of us. By then Leo Carrillo,from Oakland, had his camera out and began shooting photos as it took off, circling the boat repeatedly for about the next fifteen minutes. I'm pretty sure Leo got a few good photos. When I receive copies I'll post them here.



We headed back to Bodega Bay, and were just below the weather bouy when we slowed to watch a large group of dolphins as they traveled to the south. There were 200 or so Right Whale Dolphins and about half that many White-sided Dolphin travelling together.
They were beautiful to watch as they took turns riding the bow waves, just a few feet down in the clear water.
We could have watched all day, but the trip was scheduled for just 5 hours. We pulled in to the dock at 2:00 and I was amazed at all that we'd seen in so short a time, including a Black-footed Albatross and another Jaeger on the run home.
Vince
These are the good ol' days