Hi tweeters,

Here is a list of birds seen during a kayak trip inside Dungeness Bay on
Saturday, 12 September. We went from the Oyster House along Graveyard Spit
and Dungeness Spit out to the tip, then back the same way. Tide was fairly
high the whole time, not much exposed area for shorebird feeding. The
Oldsquaw, Red Knots, and California Gulls are perhaps of special interest.

Common Loon - 2, mostly alternate plumage
Double-crested Cormorant - com
Pelagic Cormorant - 1
Great Blue Heron - few
Canada Goose - 1 (roosting in the midst of a huge gull flock the entire time)
Green-winged Teal - 3
Mallard - few
Northern Pintail - 500 flew up from mouth of Dungeness River, seen at a distance
Am. Wigeon - 1
Harlequin Duck - 40; most molting back into alternate plumage
Oldsquaw - male resting on spit (close photos), in full "summer" plumage
with very worn wings (sick? injured? lazy?)
Surf Scoter - few
White-winged Scoter - few
Common Merganser - 10
Semipalmated Plover - 20 juv
Whimbrel - 1 juv
Ruddy Turnstone - 1 juv
Red Knot - 11 juv (close photos of the flock; it never fails to amaze me
how close one can approach shorebirds in a kayak; we got as close as we
wanted, and they didn't even flush, just kept wary eyes on us as they fed)
Sanderling - 8 basic ad + juv
Western Sandpiper - 50 juv
Least Sandpiper - 1 juv
Short-billed Dowitcher - 2 juv; one of them was probing into dry sand
around the high-tide beach wrack as we eased the kayak up toward it; just
as the boat was reaching the shore, the bird stopped probing, ran down the
beach directly toward us, and washed its bill in the water about 8' from
me, almost next to the kayak bow; either it didn't even notice us or just
*had* to get that dry sand off its bill (or maybe sticking its nose in the
sand for that long addled its head); it was a magical experience, and I
hope at least a few of the photos I took as it ran toward us and then
returned up the beach are in focus!
Heermann's Gull - com
Mew Gull - one group of adults roosting in a CA Gull flock, none seen in
many other roosting flocks!
Ring-billed Gull - few
California Gull - abund; took photos of 2 birds standing together, one of
which was distinctly larger and paler-mantled than the other, perhaps
individuals of the more southerly Larus californicus californicus and the
more northerly and interior L. c. albertaensis, the status of which in WA
is poorly known; the latter subspecies is intermediate in mantle color
between the more widespread and typical birds and Herring Gulls, so it
could confuse one, especially because a lot of adult CAGUs in summer have
bright yellow (or even orange) legs rather than dull greenish, and some of
them have only a red spot on the lower mandible; of course their eyes are
always dark, unlike a Herring or Ring-billed Gull
Western Gull + hybrids - few
Glaucous-winged Gull - abund
Caspian Tern - 1 ad
Pigeon Guillemot - few basic ad
Rhinoceros Auklet - 1 ad
Belted Kingfisher - 1
American Pipit - 20

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html