On Thursday, August 17, Jon Anderson wrote {{Hi, Jon!}}:

>Unrelated to the Fraser sockeye fishery, between 400 and 500
>alcids, appearing to be mostly rhinoceros auklets, were observed in
>northern Admiralty Inlet along Marrowstone Island to north of Point
>Wilson. Scattered smaller groups of dark alcids were seen north
>from there to about the Smith Island area - no more than 25 seen
>along the flight path.
>
(snip)
>
>Any word from the ground crews? :-)
>

Though my home-town birding has been relegated to weekends this summer, I
do get my "fix" regularly. Rhinos have been around, mostly from the north
end of Marrowstone north into the Strait since late spring -- I've assumed
they are Protection Island birds. It's fun to watch the feeding assemblies
that gather at "bait balls." Yesterday I scoped the upper (southern) end of
Port Townsend Bay and counted a minimum of 68 rhinos and 104 murres, most
resting in small rafts, often a mix of both species. I saw what appeared to
be one murre chick with its dad, and guillemot chicks have fledged. This
morning I scoped the inlet and strait from Point Wilson. There were rafts
of rhinos, as usual, and a few murres also. Saw one marbled murrelet. Most
of the rhinos/alcids disappeared/shifted locations as the current in the
Inlet revved up over the space of an hour.

There are virtually no sea ducks, the few harlequins are still molting, and
grebes are starting to show up. There were a few phalaropes, frustratingly
too far out to be sure of species -- I thought I was seeing both northerns
and reds.

Also seen yesterday: "hunndredz" of Heermann's gulls, usual glaucous-wings,
five mew gulls, one California gull, three Bonaparte's, and a kingfisher on
a piling bashing the guts out of a shiner perch.

Cheers --

Janet Hardin
Port Townsend, WA
wings at olympus.net