Hello,
Saturday was George Gerdts's Pandion Nature Tours annual boat trip around
Protection Island. The trip originated from Port Townsend, WA, city
docks, departing about 10AM with 60 or so participant reservations. Not
everyone showed up; too bad.......it was a really great day with fine
sightings and good spotting by George and assistants and the rest of us.

While the inland weekend may have been reported hot by some other birding
groups (e.g., Audubon trip to Spencer Island), the Juan de Fuca Strait was
'crisp,' to say the least.

The top sightings were:

Fourteen, yes 14!!, TUFTED puffins were spotted mostly on the water near
the shore and on both the south and north sides of the island. Some
puffins were noted with bills full of fish as they flew toward their
burrows. There were hundreds to thousands of nesting PIGEON guillemots,
GLAUCOUS-WINGED gulls, PELAGIC cormorants plus lesser numbers of
DOUBLE-CRESTED and BRANDT'S. Multitudes of RHINOCEROUS auklets could be
seen in scattered rafts, with a row of them amusingly perched on a
floating log, all along the way to the Island. At least a dozen, and more,
BALD eagles were perched on the shore, on logs, on posts, on signs, on
rocks, on relic structures, and in the trees at the NE summit with a few
soaring about freaking up the masses of gulls. I believe some people in
our group also ID'd a modest flock of early-migrating WESTERN sandpipers
feeding along the south shore edge.

Small groups of HARLEQUIN ducks were roosting, a few swimming, all around
the island at water's edge. A single somewhat-out-of-season SURF scoter
(thought to be a first year male) was loafing in the water on the
northshore. Also, both adult and immature Heermanns' gulls were seen in
the Port Townsend harbor 'n bay and all along our cruising route to/from
the island. Several BLACK Oystercatchers, one pair of them very vocal,
were shoreside and flying to shore.

I learned that between 30-35% or the world's population of Rhinocerous
auklets may be nesting at Protection and near-area islands.

Many HARBOR seals were sunning on the sand spits with quite a number of
recently born, small pups. A really special highlight sighting was a
single ELEPHANT seal, near the size of a Volkswagen Bug, about to haul
out on the northside sandy beach. Another wonderful and rare sighting
was a 5-6ft diameter 'ball' of what appeared to be small herring? fish
very close to the water's surface with a good sized (3-4ft), beautiful
golden-brown mottled 'dogfish' shark dining and feasting and pigging
out............A police boat warned our boat of enthusiastic gawkers (and
other boats, also) away when we got too close to shore on the south side
to view the seals 'n birds. We could see the shores and cliff-nests just
fine with binos at the 200 yard limit plus many birds were also in the
water and flying about.

To end a delightful fieldtrip, as we were cruising past the lighthouse and
into Port Townsend Bay, we began to see MARBLED murrelets. A total of 3
pairs and 2 single birds were noted as we headed to dock about 1:30PM.
We welcomed the warmth of the inland heat as we approached the city pier,
and reflected on the privilege of living in an area of such natural
wonder.

Cheers and enjoy it all,
Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu U of WA & Burien-Seahurst Park, WA

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

"We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities." -Pogo-