We left La Conner at 1000 on the Viking Star. The skipper, Ken MacDonald, had
seen three pods of Orcas yesterday and we had hopes of seeing them today.
There were 27 passengers on board, mostly ELWAS members but also Pilchuck
Audubon members and some who had seen the posting on Tweeters. It was very
warm on land, but was cool out on the water. A river otter was playing by the
boat while we were still docked. We headed south in the Swinomish Channel and
went out thru Deception Pass, past Lopez Is. and into the Strait of San Juan
de Fuca. We checked out all the small rocky islands for birds (a bird list
follows this report), and saw many harbor seals sunning on the rocks. The
only Orca reports were up by Pt. Roberts and west of Victoria. So we headed
for Hein's Bank between Vancouver Is. and Olympic Peninsula to look for Minke
whales. There were hundreds of Glaucous-winged Gulls and Rhinoceros Auklets
in a feeding frenzy at the banks. We found three Minke's feeding in the same
area and watched them for quite a while. As we were heading back about 3
p.m., Ken got a report of Orcas at the north end of Lummi Is. and heading
south. He said he was willing to go find the Orcas, but it would mean getting
back to the dock about 7 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. The passengers said "go for
it" and we did and found a group of eight from pod J. We watched them for a
long time with some up close and personal looks. There was one large male
with a huge dorsal fin with wavy trailing edge. He was known as "Ruffles". So
it turned out to be a great trip, with everyone happy, but a little hungry.
Double-crested Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant - large numbers
Canada Goose
Brant - a few in Padilla Bay
Mallard
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture - one flying over south end of Lopez Is.
Bald Eagle - 17
Black Oystercatcher - 1
Glaucous-winged Gull
Western Gull
Caspian Tern - a few in Padilla Bay
Marbled Murrelet - groups of 2 or 3 - total of 10-12
Rhinoceros Auklet - hundreds as mentioned above
Common Loon - one flying by
Rock Dove
Belted Kingfisher - 8, all appeared to be males
American Crow
American Robin
European Starling
Violet-green Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
House Sparrow
House Finch
White-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Species seen - 27


Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder at aol.com