Figures 44, 45 (above, right). One-third of the Mottled Petrels ever seen in California (17 of 53)—including those pictured here—were found during a 16 November 1991 deep-water trip far off Pt. Reyes, Marin County (1991-186; both Monte M. Taylor).

 

 

 

MOTTLED PETREL Pterodroma inexpectata (Forster, 1844)

Accepted: 55 (98%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 1	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 4	Color image: none

This petrel breeds during the austral summer (boreal winter) around southern New Zealand and subantarctic islands; it migrates during the austral winter to the northern Pacific Ocean and southwestern Bering Sea. The species is probably casual over deep water along the Pacific coast north to British Columbia (where considered regular in spring), and around the Galapagos Islands. Nearly all of the Pacific Northwest records fall between 20 October and 11 May; several summer records are of beached or dead birds. On 28 April 1972, a remarkable concentration of 540 birds was recorded in Canadian waters roughly 61 nautical miles off Vancouver Island (Bourne and Dixon 1975). Records of 67 individuals in Washington include several seen close to shore and nine found dead on land. Oregon claims seven birds found dead on land, a leucistic individual found on land, and 76 birds at sea, including 21 individuals recorded well off the state’s southern coast between 31 October and 1 November 2005. There is one remarkable record from interior New York.

California’s first Mottled Petrel—a bird found dead on 25 February 1976 at Abbotts Lagoon, Marin County—was followed by three more carcasses washed up on beaches later that year, and on 1 May 1977 the first live bird was picked up at Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County (Ainley and Manolis 1979). Remarkably, the first individuals detected in seemingly good health—off Pt. Mugu, Ventura County, 31 December 1981, and off Pt. Pinos, Monterey County, 12 December 1984—were both seen from shore.

Four-fifths of the state’s records of this species are from Marin County northward and only two come from Ventura County southward (Figure 46). Three-fourths of the records are from late fall and winter (November–February) and most probably involve non-breeding immatures. Increased observer coverage of California’s far offshore waters could show this petrel to be regular, or at least more regular, between late fall and early spring

 

[BLACK-CAPPED PETREL Pterodroma hasitata (Kuhl, 1820) – see hypothetical section]