Yesterday, May 14th, we enjoyed back-to-back pelagic trips. Both trips were shorter, 4-hour, trips designed for beginning seabird watchers. The identical trips left Yaquina Bay, traveled out 14 miles to chum for an hour, and headed back to port. The morning trip visited Yaquina Head, the afternoon trip ran out of time, but still managed a brief stop just off the beach north of the north jetty for Marbled Murrelets.

Weather was too good; sunny with hardly any breeze, gentle 5-foot swells and no wind waves, creating glassy seas with occasional little wind ripples. Such conditions meant that not many birds were flying about, and few responded to our chum, but we ended up seeing most expected species. The two trips were very similar in number of individuals and species.

The morning trip departed at 8 AM and returned at noon. The morning group disembarked and the afternoon group loaded, returning about 4:30 PM.

* = Most (or all) individuals seen within 3 miles of shore.