Subject: Re: Laysan Albatross, Bar-tailed Godwit, Xantus's Murrelet, and Bobolink on WA west Coast
Date: Sep 15 07:40:07 1998
From: "Ruth Sullivan" - godwit at worldnet.att.net


Fellow Tweets,

In response to the BOBOLINK sighting, which is indeed VERY RARE anywhere in
W WA, especially on the outer coast. I felt I was left in the dark about
this sighting, during my attendance on the Westport pelagic trip on Sat.
Sept. 13th, and wish I would have been told, even though the bird might
have been gone, or was this bird kept COMPLETELY quiet, until the E-mail
message was written, or just told to only a few of the SELECT birders,
which could have passed the sighting down to others. NOT GOOD!

Patrick
----------
> From: Andy Stepniewski <steppie at wolfenet.com>
> To: TWEETERS <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Laysan Albatross, Bar-tailed Godwit, Xantus's Murrelet, and
Bobolink on WA west Coast
> Date: Monday, September 14, 1998 9:06 PM
>
> Tweeters,
>
> This last weekend Denny Granstrand and I birded Washington's outer coast,
> including Ocean Shores (12 September), a pelagic trip off Westport (13
> September), and a finale at Tokeland (13 September). In the Hooker
willows
> besides the main pond on Damon Point (south side of road), there was a
> Bobolink in bright fall plumage, apparently a very rare bird on the outer
> coast here. We were able to share this sighting with Bob Woodley from
> Richland also. Shorebirds were not conspicuous, but a full day here did
> yield 16 of the commoner species:
>
> Black-bellied Plover-hundreds on the beach roost off end of Taurus St.
> golden plover, sp.-2 only and fly-overs at that. Frustrating!
> Semipalmated Plover
> Killdeer
> Whimbrel
> Black Turnstone
> Red Knot-beach roost off end of Taurus St.
> Sanderling
> Western Sandpiper
> Least Sandpiper
> Baird's Sandpiper-Damon Point Rd. pond
> Pectoral Sandpiper-Damon Point Rd. pond
> Dunlin-beach roost off Taurus St.
> Short-billed Dowitcher-mainly on Taurus St. beach roost
> Long-billed Dowitcher- heard over game range
> Common Snipe
>
> One of the amazing sights of the day was watching a Peregrine rip away at
> an immature Ring-billed Gull from the Bill's Spit wildlife viewing point
> access and then fly away with a very extended crop. This beach access on
> North Bay Rd. (about 1 mile north of the interpretive center) was
> apparently purchased by Bob Morse so that birders and nature lovers could
> have access to the Bill's Spit area, a site of great interest for all
> naturalists. Here are many birds and seals, great marine life and a
> wonderfuil view of Grays Harbor. Thanks Bob! Here we also saw the two
> American White Pelicans which have been hanging around for sometime now.
>
> Sunday (13 September), we joined Terry Wahl's pelagic boat trip to the
edge
> of the Continental Shelf some 35 miles west off Westport. About mid way
> out, we had good views of two Xantus' Murrelets, still a review species
for
> Washington. Also seen on this trip were other birds from more southern
> waters: many Brown Pelicans and lots of Heermann's Gulls.
>
> Other Alcids were generally few on the entire trip: a handful of Common
> Murres, a couple of Cassin's Auklets, and just a few Rhinoceros Auklets.
>
> All three jaegers were noted and a possible South Polar Skua. Sabine's
> Gulls were a real crowd pleaser; this is such a striking bird! And,
there
> were enough medium-sized terns out there to keep us challenged as to
their
> identity and age. However, all were ascribed as Arctics except a handful
> off the breakwaters which were Common Terns.
>
> Chumming over the edge of Grays Canyon yielded 60+ Black-footed Albatross
> and one Laysan Albatross. Possibly the same Laysan was seen the day
before
> also. Northern Fulmar exhibiting a kaleidoscope of plumages,
Pink-footed,
> Buller's and Sooty Shearwaters and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels rounded out
> our tubenose list. Both Red-necked and Red Phalaropes side-by-side on
the
> water made for a good study between these two species.
>
> Out there amidst the immensity of the Pacific swells (3+ meters on this
> day), I got a great "mini tutorial" about the "dilute domain" from Bill
> Tweit. Apparently, the combined outflow of large volumes of freshwater
> from both the Fraser and Columbia Rivers in this region of the
northeastern
> Pacific Ocean and the fact that the California Current, with its higher
> salinity is up to several hundred miles offshore, helps keep nearshore
> waters slightly less saline than is usual for most ocean waters. This
> difference is only 1.0 to 1.5 ppm, but results in a detectable difference
> in the marine environment. For example: the Black-footed Albatross
favors
> these less saline waters and is thus far more abundant (at least at this
> season) off Washington, than in other areas such as Monterey, where the
> California Current is closer to the coast.
>
> Just before entering the breakwaters, we had many hundreds of Sooty
> Shearwaters, several hundred Heermann's Gulls and lesser numbers of
> "Olympic" Gulls and a handful of Black-legged Kittiwakes. On the jetty
were
> lots of cormorants-mainly Brandt's, but also a few Double-crested and
> Pelagic. Rockpipers were represented by Ruddy and Black Turnstones,
> Surfbird, and Wandering Tattler.
>
> After the pelagic trip, several of us on board (Denny, George Gerdts and
> Gene Hunn), drove south and scanned the large shorebird flock just south
of
> Tokeland. There was at least one Bar-tailed Godwit, 250+ Marbled Godwits
> and 35+ Long-billed Curlews huddled close on the outer beaches. This
> shorebird flock is always a joy to watch. We had great views of them all
> in wild and high flight; we suspected a Peregrine put them up, but could
> not find a predator.
>
> All tallied, Denny and I had about 105 species of birds along the coast
in
> this area, including the pelagic trip. A great weekend!
>
> Andy Stepniewski
> Wapato WA