Hello all,
Yesterday, Saturday, was another Protection Island-via the good ship
"Glacier Spirit"-trip sponsored by the Port Townsend Marine Science center
and a few civil agencies. It was a weather-challenged tour with some very
exciting high-rolling chopping seas, driving rain, 36 knot winds, and a
subsequent horrendous hail storm near Morrowstone Island that left the
boat decks and beaches and cliff sides covered with icy slush, the hail
pounding the water....and us and the birds and everything....with a huge
wide-open faucet of glass beads pouring out of the sky........cosmic?.
Well, it was definitely impressive with spectacular sun break/stormy
scenery and there were a few birds seen along the way, too!

It was most fortunate that strong ginger tea was served on board for the
mere asking; there were long minutes of face-puffing queasiness until our
skilled skipper could get the ship to calmer waters. It was a wise
election to cruise only the south side with a bit of swing partway up the
west end of Protection Island.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of GLAUCOUS-WINGED gulls have already staked
out nesting territories, egg-laying to be in May. Nice views of:
numbers of HORNED and RED-NECKED grebes plus maybe one WESTERN grebe,
COMMON LOONS, HARLEQUIN ducks, even a few flocks of OLDSQUAW ducks, rafts
of RHINOCEROUS auklets, DOUBLE-CRESTED and PELAGIC cormorants on Prot.Isl
and BRANDT'S cormorants on a buoy, BLACK OYSTERCATCHERS, a fair number of
BONEPARTE'S and MEW gulls, small groups of COMMON MURRES, a couple of
MARBLED murrelets and lotsa PIGEON GUILLEMOTS, a single GREAT BLUE heron
(baleful-eyed-beautifully-plumed head popping above the grass on a sand
spit near Morrowstone), a beach-scattering of BLACK-BELLIED plovers,
minimally remaining SURF and WHITE-WINGED scoters and BARROW'S goldeneys,
but quite a number of BUFFLEHEADS near Morrowstone Island. About six BALD
EAGLES (1 A, 1 ? and 4 juveniles) were seen; all the juveniles were on
Protection Island and the adult snag-perched on Morrowstone; the
age-unknown bird was a flying silhouette.

The most notable sightings included the clear staging of BRANT moving
through the Port Townsend surrounds; we probably saw a total of near 500
of these lovely geese. Another great sighting were three TURKEY VULTURES
in the mid-Kitsap area on the drive north to meet the boat for the 1 PM
sailing. Finally, a female AMERICAN KESTREL was spotted on power lines
along the road between Port Townsend and Chimacum (with a supper stop at
the Chimacum Cafe, of course!) on the drive back.

Any other Tweeters on this trip: What did I miss reporting...sing out!
(Converse's from east of the Cascades, I met you folks on the boat---what
did you see?)

An adventurous "respect Mother Nature" struggle-to-keep-binocs-steady,
sometimes-slightly-alarming-where-are-the-life-preservers day! Very
excellent calm commentary from our on-board naturalist Roger, who not only
knows the birds, but also has an expert knowledge of ocean wave behavior.

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

"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of
confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication, and courage."
-Carl Sagan-