Last weekend I was aboard the NOAA McArthur II, exploring the Davidson Seamount, a newly designated National Marine Sanctuary. The goal of the short research cruise was survey marine life over the seamount. The highlight for me was seeing over 5,000 Cook’s Petrels! The first day tally was over 3,000! In addition we saw almost 200 Fin Whales, hundreds of dolphins and a slew of other birds and mammals.

Some more are mixed in the 2010 Pelagic Gallery:

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One of my favorite birding books has been spun into movie, and not just any but a Hollywood blockbuster comedy! It will star Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson as the three birders in The Big Year.

Of course I’ll be first in line when it comes out next year, but I’ll have the added excitement of a potential cameo! Last weekend a special Shearwater Journeys trip took birders and a film crew offshore Monterey to get footage of seabirds for the film. There were some crowd shots, so who knows!

It turned out to be a great day for cetaceans, we had dozens of Northern Right Whale and Pacific White-sided Dolphins around the boat for nearly an hour and later a group of Dall’s Porpoises zig zagging around the boat for half an hour while we sat offshore. I also saw only my second set of Fin Whales off Monterey.

The bird highlights were a couple of Xantu’s Murrelet, and 3 very cooperative Skuas. It wasn’t a huge day for birds, but we saw plenty of albatross and shearwater out there. There are lots of trips this fall, including from Half Moon Bay which is new for me and had some incredible rarities last year.

And finally, the triple skua pic, slightly less epic because I was too excited to focus!

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A few favorites, and all the rest (and slideshow button) at the bottom!

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There is a unique quality to savanna landscapes that is very comforting, like a home from a few million years back, it made this bi-pedal ape very happy this week at Mt. Hamilton. And why the slam? Great wildflowers, mammals, herps and birds of course.

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Spur of the moment afternoon birding at Panoche Valley:

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Last week Audiafauna rocked the house at the Crepe Place here in Santa Cruz. The packed sold-out crowd made picture taking difficult but I had a great time.

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I survived another Everglades Expedition. There might be some pictures in the future. Highlight was constructing a sail for a classic Grumman Canoe and cruising around the southern tip of Florida on a most beautiful day. And then the storm came, which was incredible, dumping over a foot of rain and making the last few days quite interesting.

California winter on the other hand is boringly mild. Except for one string of storms (that snowed on the Santa Cruz Mountains), the weather is far from exciting, and the short days make it even less so. So rather than outdoor photographic opportunities I’ve had to find new night-time subjects.

And I did photograph a new species from my kayak last week!

Hoping this fall to add a few more species to that list… is a Laysan Albatross too much to hope for?

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After digesting a fantastic Thanksgiving meal, I took the “Gold Medalist” canoe for a spin at Elkhorn Slough in the late afternoon. All the usual suspects, and a sea otter using heavy clams as tools.

And why I have no time to write more, because planning is underway for a winter Everglades expedition in a week!

Me very happy a week from now:

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In two hours at Moss Landing I managed to fill my flash cards without moving more than a hundred feet. I’m always amazed by the concentration of life and energy at the slough. Hundreds of shorebirds and marine mammals inhabit just the small marina and vicinity.

The fast flow of water through culverts under the bridge on Jetty Road makes a prime spot for big juicy shellfish, and the otters are well aware. The otters at Moss Landing are very tolerant of people, and this one continued feeding within four or five feet from shore.

As the tides fell, the large shorebird flocks began flying around, finding freshly exposed mudflats.

As I left I swear the sea otter was taunting me to jump in the water and box.

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I had a very memorable Halloween spent in Yosemite Valley. The reflection of the full moon beamed off the valley’s granite cliffs. I took a few photographs, and communed with fellow nature worshipers paying reverence to one of nature’s greatest shows, as humans have for centuries.

“This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.” – John Muir, John of the Mountains

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