It was an overcast and chilly spring day in Los Angeles when I set out with the Los Angeles Audubon Society's pelagic trip on the R/V Vantuna from San Pedro on May 8. I have tried and tried to see Xantus's Murrelet but, even though it is classed as a "2" in difficulty, it had always eluded me. We embarked at 6:00 a.m. on what proved to be a choppy ride out to

Santa Barbara and Catalina Islands. We saw a number of fine species (I refer you to the LAAS trip report for full details), the most exciting of which was the second record in Los Angeles County of the Black-footed Albatross. Finally, about 8:30 we came across the first pair of Xantus's Murrelet, as always, flying away from the boat. It was not a totally satisfactory sighting but the day was young.

A couple of hours later we found another flying alongside the boat for several seconds and I got an excellent look. On the way back in that afternoon yet two more showed up. All in all, five birds were seen and I got off the boat with a feeling of tremendous satisfaction that I had seen this difficult-for-me bird at last.

I have now pared the list of Class 2 and 3 birds I have not seen down to six: Short-tailed Shearwater, Emperor Goose, Gyrfalcon, Curlew Sandpiper, Ivory Gull, and McKay's Bunting. Another trip to Alaska is clearly in the future. In fact, my lovely is retiring from teaching at the end of this year and she has decided that her retirement trip should be just there. We leave June 25. Wish me luck.