Subject: Ucluelet Trip
Date: Jun 19 19:46:10 1997
From: SCRBJAY at aol.com - SCRBJAY at aol.com


Just got back from a very interesting fishing trip to Ucluelet on hte west
coast of Vancouver Island. If only the guy who owns the boat were more
interested in birding.... Oh well.

On the trip up on the 12th I spent about an hour at the terminal at
Tsawwassen and saw some interesting birds including a flock of 35+ caspian
terns. Also saw a couple of brant, a common goldeneye, great blue heron, a
couple of loons (common, I think) and several gulls (?). I don't do gulls
very well.

Ucluelet still has lots of bald eagles, both in the harbor and on the
islands to the south. I was surprised at the number of sooty shearwaters I
saw! I don't remember them from years past but this is the first year I
really keep a lookout for sea birds. Over the course of the 13th through the
17th I saw several black oystercatchers, common murres, a trio of harlequin
ducks, pigeon guillemots, cassin's auklets, pelagic comorants as well as
ring-billed gulls and gloucous-winged gulls (the easy ones to ID).

On Sunday the 15th I got a start. We were about 15 miles off shore when I
happened to glance toward the SW & saw a large bird gliding over the water
straight toward the boat. My first thought was what is a great blue heron
doing this far off shore. Not possible. When the bird turned it looked like a
sooty shearwater, except twice as large. Saw another one later in the day,
but couldn't see any identifying marking with the naked eye, just cruised low
to the water and glided away. The only thing I could find that matched is the
black-footed albatross. I looked again on Monday, but we got blown off the
water by 9 o'clock when a storm blew in. Didn't get back out before I came
home the 18th. Did I really see an albatross? Talk about making my trip!!

Stopped at Reifel on the way home yesterday. Talk about bad
timing...mid-June, 1:00 on a sunny, windy day, low tide, and a bunch of
school kids running around. Still saw enough to make the trip worthwhile. Saw
mallard, wigeon, wood ducks, green-winged and cinnamon teal, and canada
geese. Also saw greater yellowlegs and spotted sandpipers, several great blue
herons and that nesting sandhill crane. Also saw bald eagles and a northern
harrier cruising by. Lots of swallows (barn & violet-greens) as well as pine
siskins and cedar waxwings. Heard more then I could see but that happens this
time of the year.

In case your are wondering we were off the dock no later then 6:30 and not
back till after 3:30 except for Monday. We fished at a place called the SW
corner about 15 miles SW of Ucluelet Harbor. The fishing was also pretty good
for salmon & halibut. A bad sign was lots of pacific mackeral around the
rocks and no black sea bass that we could find. I hope the mackeral don't get
the salmon smolts like they did a few years ago. This is the first year of
decent returns of chinooks in a couple of years.

Phil Kelley
Lacey, WA
scrbjay at aol.com