Sunday, I went out with the Los Angeles Audubon Society on a pelagic trip through the Channel Islands. I had hoped to see three of my Nemesis Birds on the excursion but was only rewarded with one. I am sure that LAAS will post the full results of the field trip on its web site so I will not take up band-width now to give all the gory details.

Of interest to those who are following my quest to see all of the Class 2 and Class 3 birds, I shall mention only the Least Storm-petrel which was seen early on in the voyage and struck off another of the birds from my wish-list. The rest of the trip was a fine sail on somewhat choppy waters at times.

The other excitement came late in the trip when a few of us saw two Manx Shearwaters quite close to the boat flying across the bow and away at full speed. The sighting will, of course, have to be documented, but, since Arnold Small was among the lucky few, I hope the sighting will be accepted. This was not a life bird for me, but certainly was a California check and made for a glorious ending to a great day on the water.

Feel free to check my web site if you're interested in the few remaining Nemesis Birds I hope to see soon.