>Rick Droker and Carol Spaw brought back a COOK'S PETREL that they found on
>the beach at Grayland on Friday, 15 December. They went out to see if
>there would be a "wreck" anything like that at the beginning of the month.
>Fortunately for the birds, the mortality seemed much less, but there were a
>few interesting ones, including this bird, the first record for Washington
>state (but just today I discovered that a couple were seen 75 mi. off the
>coast a few years ago; they will eventually be reported by the observers).
>
Dennis,

Did you check that it is indeed a Cook's and not a Defilippi's/Masatierra
Petrel (Pterodroma cooki? defilippiana). I assume that bill measurements are
enough to separate these two species, they are extremely similar in plumage.
I think most lists now consider this a species different from Cook's, but
they have been lumped in the past. The reason I ask is that this species
does disperse northward during the non-breeding season, however its pelagic
range is largely unknown so it could show up in the north Pacific.

Take care,

Alvaro Jaramillo "You are better off not knowing
Half Moon Bay, CA how sausages and laws are made"
- From fortune cookie, Vancouver
alvaro at quake.net circa 1994
http://www.quake.net/~alvaro/index.html