Just adding information to the discussion:

On 09/27/97 Bill Shelmerdine studied a group of 32 BRPE(11ad & 21Juv)
flying over the lower Puget Sound waters of Eld Inlet. To add to the
wonder these birds were relocated(Jim Farlar, Ted Kluh) just before
nightfall on...Capitol Lake, Olympia's lake at the mouth of the Deshutes
River where it enters Budd Bay. I know... "it's the water".
All but one of the handful(less than 10) of observations in Thurston Co.,
usually single birds(up three together; Nisqually River mouth, Louise
Vicencio Sept.'96), have taken place during Sept-Oct. It appears the
*occurance* of BRPE in the lower PS is not in itself an 'el nino'
phenomenon. However, the *number* of BRPE is unprecedented(at least in the
generational memory of living locals).

MDC

LEGACY TOURS: Natural History Today and Tomorrow
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