When I tell people that one of my favorite places to go birding is the open ocean well beyond the Channel Islands, the reaction is often one of bemusement. There are birds out there? Why would there be birds? Yes, the ocean is a great place for birding if you have the stomach for it, and sometimes the birds are abundant. There are species out there that only come to land to nest, and that spend the rest of their lives roaming the seas in search of food. They range from the diminutive storm petrels to the giant albatrosses.
A few times a year, Island Packers takes trips out of Ventura to survey the deep waters to search for these mysterious creatures.
A recent Saturday saw 77 hardy — perhaps foolhardy — participants at the dock at 6:30 a.m., geared up to spend 13 hours on the open sea. Expectations were high because recent reports from Northern Californian trips suggested that birds of the deep sea were venturing closer to shore than normal. However, as we motored out into the fogged-in channel, we received news that put a real damper on our enthusiasm: The navy was conducting operations to the south of the islands, which necessitated the closure of a 40-mile-diameter section including the Santa Cruz Basin, which just happened to be our destination for the day. Skipper Joel Barrett and trip leader Dave Pereksta scrambled to come up with a plan B.