Laysan Albatross  (c) Todd McGrath

THE QUEST FOR RARITIES 

The secret to finding rarities  (like Laysan and Short-tailed Albatross, Red-billed Tropicbird, Cook’s and Murphy's Petrel, Flesh-footed Shearwater) and mega-rarities (Shy and Light-mantled Albatross; Hawaiian, Bulwer’s and Murphy’s Petrel, Red-tailed Tropicbird) is to be out there, in a deep water life-zone, chumming, watching, waiting.... 

This SoCal 2-day deep-water rarity expedition from San Diego - led by Todd McGrath - will depart Saturday afternoon.  We'll explore the "birdy" 9-mile bank off San Diego until sunset, enjoy dinner, go to sleep, and wake up Sunday morning one hundred miles offshore at the edge of the Continental Shelf - about as far south and west as you can go in the ABA area. 

This trip has but one purpose: to explore life zones in deep waters where southern hemisphere birds are usually found only by research ships – because no day trips venture this far.  We’re hunting mega-rarities, birds with fewer than 10 accepted records in all of California - the birds that people whisper about.

We’ll spend all 12 hours of daylight Sunday - from dawn to dusk - in the albatross/pterodroma/tropicbird zone, have dinner, celebrate our sightings, go to sleep and wake up at sunrise Monday morning back in San Diego.