Eleven birders completed a pelagic birding trip on the cruise ship, Golden Princess, departing from Vancouver, British Colombia to Los Angeles, California, 25-28 September. Jay Withgott reported that on 27 September an ABA Code-4 Streaked Shearwater (Calonectris leucomelas) was encountered in California waters 45 miles north of Point Reyes. In addition, the group saw an adult ABA Code-3 Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus) about 48 miles west of Monterey Peninsula, and an ABA Code-3 Cook’s Petrel (Pterodroma cookii) about 50 miles west of the Monterey County coastline between Carmel and Pt. Sur.
Most Streaked Shearwater records from the ABA Area come from the vicinity of Monterey Bay. In addition, totally unexpected inland, there are two records including a photographed bird from Red Bluff, California, and one specimen of a salvaged bird from near Medicine Bow, Wyoming. An additional record came from Oregon’s Heceta Bank (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.). Streaked Shearwater is a bird from the northwest Pacific, breeding on islands off Japan, eastern China, Korea, and southeastern Russia. After breeding they migrate to tropical southeastern China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Coral Sea, and the Indian Ocean (Albatrosses, Petrels & Shearwaters of the World, Onley and Scofield).
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