Subject: Penn Cove auklet
Date: May 18 12:53:22 1999
From: Greg Toffic - greg.toffic at zoo.org


Tweeters,
Following up on Sunday's WOS Birdbox report by Steve Mlodinow and Dennis Duffy of a small dark alcid, tentatively identified as a whiskered auklet, I spent a good part of yesterday attempting to see the bird. I was not the first to arrive, getting to Kennedy Lagoon at about 11:00 am. There were several other observers that I encountered and birded with from 11 until about 1:30. For this entire time I birded along with Bob Koontz from the road looking east into Penn Cove. During this period other birders, including Bob Morse and Brian Scott and others from B.C. watched for shorter periods, but also explored the north shore up to Oak Harbor and the south shore up to Coupeville. Bob and I did not see any likely small auklets and presumedly no other birders checking the cove found the bird during this period. I decide to bird elsewhere, and left, returning to Kennedy Lagoon at about 3:30. I birded with Keith Taylor at this location for less than half an hour. He decided to check the south shore and left. I decided to pack it in and return home but ran into a party nearby that included Rick and Mike Toochin, Ken Knittle and at least two others. Almost immediately after I arrived, at about 4:00 Rick spotted a tiny, all dark alcid with a round head and stubby bill. We got three or four scopes on the bird and watched it continuously for the next hour to hour and a half. At one point, Ken Knittle and I and Ken's birding companion (Wayne?) Stayed in Kennedy Lagoon glued to the bird while the Toochins and others tried to get a different angle from the San de Fuca pier. They were not able to get any improved looks from that location and returned to Kennedy Lagoon. We alll continued watching as the bird drifted southward. The bird never dived. It flapped its wings and stretched many times during this observation period and never showed any white or lightness on the chest or belly. The wings appeared to be relatively long and pointed and the underwings were very dark. On two or three occasions as the bird turned away from us with its "butt" towards us the undertail coverts shone bright white. We did not see the bird closely enough to note any facial plumes, iris color or bill color. We saw the bird in close proximity to pigeon guillemots on several occasions and the bird was clearly smaller than the guillemots. At one time the bird drifted past a common loon. cloe enough that I commented that I hoped the loon would not eat the auklet. The auklet was closer to us than the loon but its entire length was no bigger than the total length of the loon's head and bill. At some point we thought the bird might be better seen from the town pier in Coupeville, so again Ken, Wayne and I remained at the lagoon and the others went out to the pier. They returned stating that they could not find the bird from that angle. I've forgotten exactly when it occurred, but at some time after we had been watching for quite a while and our eyes were tiiring, we lost the bird. After 10 minutes or so, we relocated an alcid in the same general location where we had last seen our subject. Keith Taylor returned at about this time, and we excitedly showed him the alcid that we were now watching. After a few minutes he exclaimed that the bird had flapped and in full frontal view, it was white from the chest down! None of us took him seriously because we had all seen the bird we had been observing over the previous two hours flap many times and no one had seen any hint of white on the chest or belly. However, shortly after this the bird passed by two scoters and by direct size comparison we quickly realized that this was a different bird than we had been watching before losing it. This bird was in fact a rhinoceros auklet. It was not the bird we had been watching earlier. Keith has made the statement on the Bird Box that no one saw the whiskered auklet (if that's what it is) yesterday, however this statement was based upon his seeing the rhinoceros which the rest of the group had erroneously thought was the rediscovered bird that we had been watching for 2 hours and that had momentarily gone out of sight. The bottom line on this is that I can't say that I saw all the diagnostic features of a first year whiskered auklet, but I am convinced that I saw the same bird that Steve and Dennis had seen on Sunday. I certainly hope others get the chance to seek out this auklet. Good luck.


Greg

Greg Toffic
Curator of Birds
Woodland Park Zoo
5500 Phinney Avenue N.
Seattle, WA 98103
(206)684-4836 PH
(206)233-7278 FAX
greg.toffic at zoo.org

"Metaphors be with you"