Highlights from Leg 2, ORCAWALE marine mammal / seabird survey onboard NOAA
R/V McArthur, mid-Aug to mid-Sep 1996. [Washington-Oregon-California coastal
waters, and out 300nm].

STREAKED SHEARWATER -- 13Sep96, Heceta Bank, 43:59'N, 124:51'W (~30nm off
central Oregon). Sea Temp. 13.6:C. Single bird seen and studied well for
about two minutes (no photos but well documented with descriptive notes and
seen by Mike Force, myself, et.al.). Thousands of seabirds around Heceta
Bank especially in the vicinity of small vessel fishing fleet working there,
and most lucrative seabird area encountered during Leg 2.

RED-TAILED TROPICBIRD -- 10Sep96, 43:45'N, 130:11'W (~260nm WNW Cape Blanco,
Oregon). Blue water, sea temp. 18.6:C. Pair of birds, sub-adults with wiry
central red rectrices and otherwise mostly all white plumage, but with
reddish to yellowish-brown bills. This pair circled and hovered over the
ship for more than 10 minutes to the delight of everyone. A most unexpected
surprise and high noon 'lunchtime special'.

RED-TAILED TROPICBIRD -- 11Sep96, 42:42'N, 129:57'W (~240nm W Cape Sebastian,
Oregon). Blue water, sea temp. 18.6:C. Encore single bird, sub-adult again
(I missed this one) seen by Mike Force, et.al., but again circling around
over the ship at lunchtime high noon.

General Remarks: Weather and seas were much more forgiving during Leg 2.
Trackline effort was concentrated in Washington - Oregon latitudes as we've
tried to knock these lines off before the autumn storm track sets in. Leg 3
will focus more southward. We're done with Washington, a few lines remain
off Oregon, and a lot off central and southern California.

Heceta Bank off central Oregon was the consistent 'hot spot' during several
passes through this area. Some 10-12,000 Fork-tailed Storm Petrels were
concentrated along the western slopes of Heceta Bank on 29 August forming
huge rafts and patches that extended along a north-south line from horizon to
horizon but limited to a band less than two miles wide. We only made a
single pass through the midst of this mass and total numbers concentrated
there are likely substantially much higher. Otherwise, encounters with
Fork-tailed Storm Petrels were relatively few, thus suggesting very local
mass concentrations in select areas. The only other concentration was
encountered along the slope north of Gray's Canyon (WA) consisting of ~2,000
birds.

An immature Laughing Gull was on Heceta Bank on 17Sep. A few Flesh-footed
Shearwaters (<10 total) were scattered about on the outer Oregon slope (none
off Washington) and a few Short-tailed Shearwaters began appearing in early
September amongst the thousands of Sooties. Buller's Shearwaters peaked in
late Aug / early Sep but appear to be tapering off now. A seabird charter
day trip to Heceta Bank complete with chum and a boat load of enthusiastic
birders could be a worthy and enviable effort right now. The nature of line
transect surveys only reveals a tantalizing glimpse of what we might find if
we could only linger in these 'hot spots' for a day or more.

Beyond the slope off Washington and Oregon, diversity and densities become
abysmal. A vast improvement over Leg 1, but still abysmal and standard fare
has consisted almost exclusively of a steady but widely scattered sprinkling
of Alaskan migrants (Long-tailed Jaeger, Arctic Tern, and occasional Sabine's
Gull and Red Phalarope), and more or less year round wanderers like
Black-footed Albatross and Leach's Storm Petrel. Summer and early Fall is
NOT an exciting time way out there anywhere beyond the continental slope. We
have not seen a single gadfly petrel (_Pterodroma_) north of southern
California apart from the notable exception of a Dark-rumped (Hawaiian)
Petrel ~70nm off Cape Mendocino, CA in late July (Mike Force, et.al.). No
'cookilaria' at all off Oregon and Washington has been a bit surprising and
disappointing in contrast to a late July 1994 cruise in these areas which
yielded four sightings.

Xantus' and Xantus/Craveri's sp? Murrelets appear to be less numerous than
the 1994 cruise but present and scattered from the shelf break seaward and
usually the only alcid species ever encountered in the otherwise sterile blue
pelagic realm all the way out at 300nm. The majority of these that we've
managed to see well enough for a positive ID seem to be the Baja form (_S. h.
hypoleucus_) and are invariably seen in pairs and often (like plane crashes)
seem to come in three's (pairs) scattered over a 5-10 minute period, then
none for days. I am 90% certain of at least one pair Craveri's ~150nm off
central Oregon on 11 Sep.

I've heard that the Oregon Common Murre population has suffered a massive
crash this summer but don't know the details. I will say that numbers of
Common Murres encountered in Oregon coastal waters (Washington too) are
exceptionally sparse! Northern / Central California numbers seem to be doing
better. I'm wondering if there is any correlation with the unusually large
numbers of Common Murres seen during the coastal sea watches on the
central/southern California (San Luis Obispo Co) coast this past Spring.

One of the more interesting marine mammal highlights of Leg 2 was a small
pack of killer whales playing *orca football* with a single Dall's Porpoise
on Heceta Bank on 12Sep. We just followed this group around for 90 minutes
and this episode looked more like a training session for the youngsters as
they could have taken the porpoise out at any time if they wanted to.
Instead, the three large males just held back on the perimeter allowing the
the young ones to relentlessly pursue, pounce upon, and flip and toss the
hapless porpoise several feet through the air. After 90 minutes of these fun
and games, they finally killed it, dragged it below the surface, and
presumably consumed it. Some remarkable video and stills were obtained of
this fascinating event.

That's all for now. Good Luck to *Tweeters* at the Ocean Shores annual
meeting and Gray's Canyon pelagic trips. Watch out for Streaked Shearwater.
It's out there somewhere. This is an Astoria, Oregon portocall. No reply
necessary. After Sunday, 9/22, I'll be offline until early November and gone
by the time you read this.

Richard Rowlett <pagodroma at aol.com>
Bellevue/Seattle, WA, USA