Good morning tweeters,

I was quite surprised to find an active nest of a Pigeon Guillemot under
the downtown Seattle ferry terminal. I'll provide an account in case you
think I'm full of bird droppings:

About 1100 Saturday morning (8/17/96) I was waiting for the
Seattle-Bainbridge Island ferry. I watched a Pigeon Guillemot about 10
yards south of the ferry dock. It was just slowly approaching the dock,
with a fish in it's mouth. I was straining to see what kind of fish it
might be, when an immature Glaucous-winged Gull tore out from under the
dock and the guillemot shot out of the water with the gull about a yard
off it's tail. The guillemot out flew the gull, circled back, and to my
surprise landed right in the same spot it had just left; with fish still
in beak.

It then approached the ferry dock again. When it was just under the edge,
it began calling, and an answering call was returned! It floated about 4
yards under the dock, mostly under a cement horizontal beam, calling and
being answered. It dipped the fish into the water several times, ignored
the antics of a couple of kingfishers that were chasing each other, and
took off into flight again. It made a large circle, flew under the dock,
and into a hole on the east side of the horizontal beam (the beam ran
north-south), and came back out, fishless in Seattle...


Michael Patrick
mpatrick at eldec.com
(206)743-8204