Late in the morning of 5 July 2004 Charles E. and Barbara Vaughn found an adult male Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) swimming in the ocean off Battery Point at Crescent City, Del Norte County, California. They quickly notified interested persons about their find, enabling local birders such as Alan Barron and Ron LeValley to see and photograph it that afternoon. The eider was then widely seen through 18 July, during which time it ranged over about 3 miles from Battery Point northwest to Castle Rock.