Wednesday Evening, August 22, 2012

In the water this evening were Rob, John, Niel and about 10,000 sooty shearwaters.  While we were getting ready and talking about where to swim the birds showed up and began feeding on a concentration of bait fish that was about a mile offshore.  We walked down to the water and stood there trying to determine if and where the bait ball was moving towards so we could be somewhere else and if we wanted to go ahead and get in.   The birds didn't come any closer to shore but did move east and west.  After about 20 minutes of watching we decided to do a short swim on the west side of the pier.   The water temperature was 60 degrees and much cleaner than last Sunday with a slight breeze from the east, so the conditions were inviting, we just didn't want to find ourselves too close to the feeding frenzy.  We got started, swam under the pier and headed west staying farther inside the buoy line towards shore than usual.  We stopped frequently to keep an eye on the location of the birds.  The water temperature went way up as entered the outflow from the creek near the last buoy.   It was so warm that swimming out of it on the way back felt like I was just getting in.  We crossed back under the pier and just hung out in the water for a while, it was so comfortable bobbing around in the swell.  By the time that we had dried off the birds had dispersed.  There were whales around Avila earlier in the day but they were not to be seen this evening.  

niel