Bill Tweit and Bruce LaBar are off the Olympic peninsula surveying
seabirds. Here are brief reports e-mailed from the deep blue sea:

18 July

Birds have been slow in general, no howling rarities yet. Did have a
Flesh-foot, an early Buller's, early Arctic Tern, several South Polar
Skuas. Mammals have been better, good Humpback Whales and a loose
aggregation of almost 40 oceanic Killer Whales.

19 July
No new birds, except for an Arctic Tern that actually came in and
perched on the radio mast for an hour yesterday. Birds really are
slow out here this year. FTSP (Fork-tailed Storm Petrel) appear to be
one of the few exceptions,
we had one feeding concentration of 1000+ and they have been the most
common tubenose some days.


Tom Schooley
dunlin at mail.tss.net
Olympia