Hello,

I went on the Protection Island cruise Saturday with the Marine Science
Center out of Port Townsend. Our mode of travel was a splendid 1913-built
schooner called "Adventuress." It has about 2400 square feet of sail,
three masts (a fore and aft mast design so can "tack" in most any
direction), and is a whole LOT of work to manage. The realization of what
life must have been like for a sailer on these ships of old was sobering,
indeed. It was a very nice trip, but it would be best if these one-day
cruises also restricted children to those 12 or older. The several small
children in our group greatly disturbed what should have been a quiet trip
with running and screaming and marginal supervision by their parents. On
behalf of the company that does take this ship out on more than one-day
(weekends and longer), trips, age 12 and above IS the rule.

Given the season, birding was limited out to the island. There were a few
Purple Martins flying about the docks at Port Townsend. There was also a
tight-knit group of Pigeon guillemots swimming near the public pier,
perhaps a freshly fledged family group. We were also fortunate to spot at
least two Dall's porpoises as we semi-sailed, mostly motored to the
island (the winds were quite light and we were traveling against the
breeze, and this was only a one-day schedule!)

On the water near the island we saw four Tufted puffins, one carrying
'arranged' fish in its beak, so there is at least one baby puffin being
fed on the island. The contrast between the Double-crested and Pelagic
cormorants' nests was so interesting. The Double-cresteds are nesting on
stick-built towers that are built higher season to season. The Pelagics
have nests in burrows and crevices on the steep bluffs.

The were large numbers of juvenile Rhinocerous auklets and a fair number
of juvenile Common murres on the water, a few Red-necked phalaropes, a
sprinkling of Pigeon guillemots, one maybe-molting ragged-looking
Harlequin duck, a few White-winged scoters and up to 300
Heermann's gulls in the area with many juveniles (this species
nests off the coast of Mexico and wanders north after fledging.)

Hundreds and hundreds of Glaucous-winged gulls were on the beaches and in
the grasslands above the bluffs and flying about and on the water. There
were also dozens and dozens of Harbor seal mothers hauled out on the
beaches nursing their young. These in turn were being scrutinized by two
adult and one immature Bald eagles perched close to the seal masses
waiting to scavenge any casulties.

It was a fabulous, sunny, calm sea, light winds kind of NW summer day.

No bird report this week from the Des Moines Marina and surrounds as it
is the time of the Waterland Festival, noisy and crowded, but economically
important to our little town, and is a lot of fun (ends tonight, whew!)

Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA