Six sharp-eyed birders spent eight hours off the coast of Kona. The morning started with a brief light sprinkle by a passing weather front but we quickly was able to head out to deeper waters where the sun greeted us for the rest of the day. We had a few periods of three to five feet swells. We saw 14 species while Bulwer's Petrels kept us company for most of the day. The super large foraging flocks near the tsunami buoy consisted of eight species including all three booby species in the Hawaiian Islands was breath taking.
Laughing Gull (1; first-spring)
Noio koha, Brown Noddy (2)
Manu-o-Ku, White Tern (5)
'Ewa'ewa, Sooty Tern (3)
Koa'e kea, White-tailed Tropicbird (2)
Leach's Storm-Petrel (1)
'Ake'ake, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel (1)
storm-petrel sp. (2)
'U'au, Hawaiian Petrel (1)
Pterodroma sp. (1)
'Ou, Bulwer's Petrel (41)
'U'au kani, Wedge-tailed Shearwater (176)
Sooty Shearwater (4)
Procellariid sp. (7)
'A, Masked Booby (1 adult)
'A, Brown Booby (31, mostly juveniles and subadults)
'A, Red-footed Booby (1 adult, brown-morph)
Honu, Sea Turtle (2)
Malolo, flying fish sp. (37)
Pale-colored Moth sp. (2)