I went to Point-No-Point this am to see if any Short-tailed Shearwaters or
Leach's Storm-Petrels blew in with yesterday's storm. Although there was a
report of one Short-tailed from the Edmonds-Kingston ferry, yesterday at 11:30
Kingston side heading south, not a one of either the shearwater or storm-
petrel this morning from the Kitsap Peninsula. But there were hundreds of
alcids. I counted 457 Common Murres and over 150 Ancient Murrelets. It was
difficult to count the murrelets; they kept flying back and forth across the
point, plunging directly into the water without landing first, riding the
waves and diving in unison. One flock contained 47 individuals. Several came
within a few feet of the shore, allowing great views. Also saw a total of 8
Pigeon Guillemots, 3 Rhinoceros Auklets, and 1 Marbled Murrelet.

About one out every ten murres displayed some interesting plumage
characteristics. These seemed to be molting into alternate plumage or they
were molting out of it (late). Anyway, these birds had a mostly dark head. The
first one I saw I had to double take, thinking it was a Thick-billed Murre,
but it lacked the white tomium stripe, blunt thickish bill, unmarked white
flanks, and truer black (not brownish-black) upperparts of that species. In
other words, it appeared nearly the same as the other murres it was hanging
out with, except with the nealry complete black head. Others I noted
throughtout the morning had varying amounts of black coming in on the cheeks
and throat as well. I am not totally familiar with molt patterns in murres,
but I believed that they retained their basic plumage through the late fall
and most of the winter...any clarification on this topic is most welcome.

Other species included Pacific, Common and Red-throated Loons, Red-necked,
Western and Horned Grebes, Brandt's Cormorants (35+!), Pelagic and Double-
crested Cormorants, all three scoters, Oldsquaw, Barrow's and Common
Goldeneye, Red-breasted Mergansers, Bonaparte's, Mew, California, Glaucaous-
winged and "Puget Sound" Gulls. There was a group of Black Brant almost half-
way between Kingston and Edmonds on the return ferry trip.

_____________________________
Alan J. Knue
pinguinus at aol.com
Seattle, WA 98117