Subject: Protection Island Birds
Date: Sep 1 23:01:41 1996
From: Paul Talbert - paul at sparky.fhcrc.org



Tweets:

Last week I took my wife and inlaws on the Sequim Bay Tours trip out by
Protection Island and the Dungeness Lighthouse. Two of us were semi-serious
birders and two just glad to be out of the city, and we all had a great time!
We think we saw:

Protection Island:

glaucus-winged gulls: hundreds
pigeon guillemots: hundreds
tufted puffins: about 6
double-crested cormorants: about 250 (wild guess)
harbor seals: about 175 in three groups of about 50 plus a smaller group
red-throated grebes: 3
great blue heron: 1
bald eagle: 2 or 3, yearlings
bonaparte's gull: 1
pelagic cormorants: about 100


Open water between the island and the spit:

common murres: dozens
pigeon guillemots: dozens

(we were travelling a bit fast for good identification)


Dungeness Spit:

bald eagle, immature: 1 - this guy even fished (unsuccessfully) for us
bonaparte's gulls: dozens
Caspian terns: dozens
harbor seals: about 20
unidentified shorebirds (too small and far away to hazard a guess): maybe 50

Sequim Bay:

Heermann's gulls: maybe 20
rhinoceros auklets: 2

Hope I'm not forgetting too many. Thanks to whoever it was that
posted the information on the tours. I'd lke to go back when the
migration season picks up some. I was somewhat surprised how little
overlap in species there were in the different habitats. I wonder what is
so different about leeward Protection Island, leeward Dungeness spit and
Sequim Bay that leads to different species of gull dominating in each
area?

We also checked out the Sequim Museum, with its mastadon and
mammoth teeth display. If you haven't been there, it is an unexpected
delight (and free)!

Paul Talbert
Fred hutchinson Cancer Research Center
paul at sparky.fhcrc.org