The Farallon Islands, an amazing place to visit

We had friends visiting from Boston back in August who had planned a trip to the Farallon Islands on August 22nd. I’ve lived in the city since 1980 and have never been, so having procrastinated long enough, I signed Charlene and myself up to go along.

The trip is run out of the marina just beside Ft. Mason. There is a website to check out for details and schedules. SFBAYWHALEWATCHING.COM

The boat runs clean without diesel fumes, it is the catamaran shown here;

We left at 8AM on a gray overcast morning. There were swells that day on the ocean that made me glad that I had taken my motion sickness pill. BTW Bonine is the recommended medicine these days. Dramamine makes you very sleepy. I recommend it if you want to insure a fun trip.

This particular trip we shared the boat with six sea lions that were being released by the Marine Mammal Center in Marin.

As we passed the gate, we hugged the coast to catch this view of some California Sea Lions the way they were meant to be seen.

The trip out took about 2:45 and after we arrived at the islands, the sea lions were released…

Of course there were birds. We saw Brown Pelicans, Common Murres, Western Gulls, Brandt’s, Pelagic and Double-crested Cormorants, Elegant Terns, Western Grebes, Red-necked Phalaropes, and my very first view of a Tufted Puffin…

There were many folks on the boat with me and for the most part we got along very well, but when the whales are spotted, there was a bit of crowding and it made it hard to get shots of the whales. In addition, carrying two cameras around my neck made it awkward to maneuver. At one point I was shooting a sequence of a grey whale’s flukes as it dove, thinking I had gotten some good shots, I looked down to review the images and found they were completely white. I had bumped the setting on the top of the camera from Aperture Priority to Manual and the shots were ten stops over exposed.

I also got to see a Humpback Whale breach completely out of the water, and missed the shot because I could not get the camera up in time. Clearly there is a learning curve when photographing on a pitching deck.

No matter, we had a great time anyway. I got to see two whales, the first ever for me, plus I added three species of birds to my life list. The Tufted Puffin shown above, and also the Pigeon Guillemot …

and the Pink-footed Shearwater shown below…

I shot some 600 images that day and it took me a week to edit it down to a reasonable number. You can see the entire edited page at my website at this link. It was an amazing day, and if you can spare the time and the cost, it is worth it. Really it is.