This offshore, deep water, pelagic trip allows you to get out to the offshore waters beyond the reach of most day trips. You will have a chance to see a number of outstanding pelagic birds and marine mammals. Our intention is to go south from Ventura towards San Nicolas Island and the banks, knolls, canyons and other productive features in the area. This will give us a chance to look fo sought after species like Red-billed Tropicbird, Least Storm -Petrel, Leach’s Storm-Petrel, Townsend Storm-Petrel, Guadalupe Murrelet and Craveri’s Murrelet. We will decide what our offshore destination will be after reviewing oceanographic conditions at the time of the trip, which will help determine where the birds and other marine life may be present of concentrated
This trip is scheduled to depart from the Channel Islands Harbor/Oxnard Harbor. We will travel aboard the the vessel Vanguard for an 9-hour event. Typically, we skirt the edge of the Hueneme Canyon on our way to Anacapa Island. We often encounter a variety of seabirds including, Cassin’s Auklets, Scripps’ Murrelets, Common Murres, Rhinoceros Auklets, and Black-vented Shearwaters. We will motor along the coast of Anacapa Island and look at the groups of seabirds congregating for the nesting season. Later we arrive at Prisoner’s Harbor on Santa Cruz Island where we disembark for an hour or so to observe the Island Scrub-Jay and other terrestrial birds. On the crossing home, we will have a good stretch of water to cover with more pelagic birding opportunities.