Hi folks,

Yesterday (Wednesday), I spent most of the day working at Apple Cove Point. We left Kingston at about 7a.m., where there were about 80 crows and 150 starlings - either at the marina/ferry landing, or flying over. About 50 Common Terns were feeding just off the stern of the "Hyak".

Apple Cove Point is about 1 mile NE of Kingston (Kitsap Co.), and when we got there at 7:30, there were quite a few birds - mostly gulls and crows - on the beach on the incoming tide. In all, I saw:

Common Terns - about 25
Heerman's Gulls - 3
California Gulls - about 18
Glaucous-winged Gulls - ~45
Bonaparte's Gulls -- ~12
Parasitic Jaeger - 1 harrassing some feeding Bonnies
Surf Scoters - 3
White-winged Scoters - 7
Double-crested Cormorant - 8
Brandt's Cormorants - 6
Red-necked Loon - 1 flying south
27 Crows
1 Spotted Sandpiper - on the beach
37 Barn Swallows - feeding over the water just before a 9:30 a.m. shower... then off across the Sound to Edmonds!

At about 9am, a couple of dozen Red-necked Phalaropes flew by. These were the first of many flocks of 6-30 that went past going both north and south. A flock of about 75 common terns fed just south of the point at noon, and by 2 pm had been replaced by a flock of about 200 Bonaparte's gulles. Through the day, I saw 2 other Parasitic Jaegers (all 3 were light-phase, 1 still had good central tail feathers showing). I wish I'd had the time to watch birds more, as the flocks kept changing! And, I'm sure that I missed a lot of neat stuff that was going by...

On the way back in, just outside the marina area to the south of the ferry landing were 2 adult Western Gulls (thought I was in Coos Bay for a minute....) hanging around a fish-buying boat. When we got back in to Kingston at about 4:30pm, there was quite a bit of mudflat exposed to the west of the marina. *Lots* of gulls on the beach and into the water! I estimated about 1,300 Bonaparte's gulls, maybe 250 Common Terns, 75 California Gulls, 35 (mostly 1st year) Glaucous-winged gulls. Someone who has the scope and time might want to check out that big flock of Bonaparte's, etc. for something exciting (with my luck/ability/optics, there was a Black-headed or Little Gull in the mix, and I didn't notice it....).

What I noticed were NOT in the area were any alcids! With the increasing numbers of murres up in the Port Townsend-San Juan Island area, and all the rhinoceros auklets that should be dispersing from Protection Island, I thought it was kind of unusual that neither species was in the Kingston area. I've seen these species at this location at this time every year since 1990 (at least present, if not in numbers), and think that they are conspicuous by their absence.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net