A few years back we were working in various places in British Columbia looking at potential windfarm inpacts on bats and birds. One night back at the field house a notice came by email about a few jobs that were looking for biologists who were willing to travel on a vessel that was following an ice-breaker through the Arctic. The job entailed writing observations of all pelagic birds spotted (as well as mammals).

This job ad was read aloud and the room became very quiet. One guy pointed out he had his pelagic birding book with him that he would lend out. The project lead laughed a bit, looked at everyone not laughing, laughed a bit more nervously, looked again, then stated, “No, no, no. You can’t go. You’re working for us! You signed a contract!”.

We wouldn’t have gone anyway (professional reasons not to mention keeping your word), but it certainly was a very tempting offer. If I actually had this book on my shelf, I may do something foolish and spurn a good recurring contract in my local area for a one-shot pelagic birding adventure.

Tubenoses at the Salton Sea tend to be due to hurricanes shooting straight up the Gulf of California and into the Salton basin. A rare event. The strong winds drag all sorts of flying things along, and the sea birds sometimes then hang around the Salton Sea for a while, probably not knowing where else to go.

I was going to ask if you had intended “pelagic”, but did a search for “pleagic” which, because teh intarnets want to mess with me, generates lots of results, including this:
http://malibuhigh.smmusd.org/facultypages/facultyhome/cary2/Caryhome/ZumaGuides/PleagicBirdOrderCharacteristics.pdf