Subject: Cook's Petrel
Date: Dec 21 14:06:25 1995
From: PAGODROMA at aol.com - PAGODROMA at aol.com
>>On Tue, 19 Dec 1995, Dennis Paulson wrote:
>>
>>> Well, this morning I got a new bird for the state--not for my "state
>>> list," but for the state. Pretty exciting.
>
>
>On Wed, 20 Dec 1995, Dennis Paulson wrote:
>
>Nope, poor maligned Tom had nothing to do with it. I was curious about the
>response, and 24 hours later, I'm intrigued by the fact that not one of the
>people who I think are deeply concerned with the status of Washington's
>bird list responded (others responded to me privately). Did you guys think
>I was pulling your legs? And I even used the word "got" in its appropriate
>sense.
>
>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).
>
>Although gull-picked, the specimen is in good enough shape to be made into
>a study skin; I'll bring it to a WOS meeting some time, or it can be
>observed lying in state at the Slater Museum.
>
>
Oh drat, Dennis! You should have played the game a little longer. Surely
someone could have figured what bird it was through probablility and process
of elimination. Others as myself who may have heard prematurely could have
kept silent. And yes, I caught on to your usage of the word "got" as the
keyword in the cryptic puzzle. Good one Dennis!
Bob Pitman (San Diego, CA), Mike Force (Vancouver, BC), and I (Seattle,WA),
et.al. were involved in a marine mammal cruise onboard the NOAA R/V
*Surveyor* in late July 1994, and logged four sightings of Cook's Petrels (2,
1, 3, 1) well off the Washington and Oregon coast, ~75 - 275 nm, along with
quite a few Xantus murrelets, and hundreds of long-tailed jaegers.
Unfortunately, our record keeping was really sketchy. Mike kept the 'sort
of'' *best* notes, and I have just talked with him this morning to see if we
can pull some of this together and make something useful out of it. I'm
trying to dredge up my own notes, but as memory serves, I think the first two
(pair) were ~75nm off Westport / Gray's Canyon area.
Again, this was a MARINE MAMMAL cruise, and seabirds were of rather passing
ancillary interest to say the least. Man, did we screw up! It was a dream
cruise for Washington / Oregon with flat, often slick, calm seas EVERY DAY
for two weeks. I guess we were way too distracted by all those little beaked
whales (_Mesoplodon carlhubbsi_) out around the offshore seamounts.
With 80,000 hours of sea time all over the world under my belt, unless the
cruise is seabird oriented, it's not always possible to keep up with the
birds. I've learned that just about anything, anywhere, at anytime is
possible and tend to be less surprised by such than others might be -- alas,
Cook's Petrel. ...and not to even mention but in passing, Xantus murrelets
off B.C., dark-rumped (Hawaiian), Solander's, and Murphy's petrels, and local
*concentrations* of short-tailed albatross scattered around and not far off S
& SE Alaska and eastern Aleutians in Aug 1994. Pelagic birds know no
political boundaries and I pay little attention in that sense to such. As a
*lister,* I fail.
Richard Rowlett <pagodroma at aol.com>
Bellevue, WA, USA