Wednesday Jetty Count for
the South Jetty of the Columbia River, Clatsop Co., OR
13 Sep 1997 0830 to 0930hr

Tide:in coming
Weather: mostlysunny
Wind E 5-10; Temp 60F


Method: One hour (timed) station count 100m west of "3 rocks" on
top of SJCR using 20x60 Bushnell spotting scope and 8x50 Bushnell
binoculars. Birds were sorted as to flyby, sitting on beach, sitting
on ocean or sitting on river.

flyby beach ocean river total
Common Loon COLO 1 6 7
Pacific Loon PALO 2 18 20
RT Loon RTLO 19 4 23
West Grebe WEGR 4 1 5
Sooty Shearwater SOSH 422 50 472
Brandt's Cormorant BRCO 59 59
Pelagic Cormorant PECO 6 11 17
DC Cormorant DCCO 2 6 8
Brown Pelican BRPE 17 5 2 24
Northern Pintail NOPI 48 48
Mallard MALL 1 1
American Wigeon AMWI 8 8
Greater Scaup GRSC 4 4
Surf Scoter SUSC 10 10
White-wing Scoter WWSC 6 3 9
Black Scoter BLSC 1 1
Parasitic Jaeger PAJA 1 1
West Gull WEGU 20 10 1 31
GW Gull GWGU 5 5
Ring-billed Gull RBGU 1 1
California Gull CAGU 22 37 59
Heerman's Gull HEEG 102 12 114
Black-legged Kittiwake BLKI 8 3 11
gull sp. 100 50 150
Common Tern COTE 1 1
Red-necked Phalarope RNPH 28 28
Common Murre COMU 4 4
XANTUS' MURRELET XAMU 2(?) 2
Barn Swallow BARS 1 1

Notes: Two small (murrelet-sized) black and white alcids flew by heading
toward the ocean at about 0845hr. They were tentatively identified as
XANTUS' MURRELETS. They were not relocated again on the date of this
observation. A single COMMON TERN was seen at about 0900hr. Large numbers
of SOOTY SHEARWATERS are still present and a significant increase in all
three loon species was evident.

A running account of this and other seawatches is available at:
http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/enso/jetty.html


--
********************************* I am but mad north-north-west;
* Mike Patterson, Astoria, OR * when the wind is southerly,
* mpatters at orednet.org * I know a hawk from a handsaw.
http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters -ws