Hi Tweets,

Spent a wonderful Sunday birding the NW section of Puget Sound, from
Shine Tidelands State Park to Port Townsend, with Marissa Benavente and
Isadora and Kendrick Wong. We managed to avoid the rain and also lucked out
in having fairly calm winds so that we didn't freeze our bins off.
At Shine Tidelands (NW corner of Hood Canal bridge) we scanned both
forest and water. Landbird highlights there were a Hairy Woodpecker, a
Hutton's Vireo and one of the grey-headed races of Orange-crowned Warbler.
There were at least 10-12 Marbled Murrelets, many cormorants, Red-breasted
Mergansers, Guillemots, etc. north of the bridge. The park is officially
closed for the winter, but there didn't seem much harm in just stopping to
scope birds from there - please don't send the park nazis after me....
From there we headed north to Oak Bay where we scoped the shorebirds,
gulls and ducks. There were 2 Western Sandpipers among the Dunlin and
Black-bellied Plovers in the lagoon, a possible 2nd winter Thayer's Gull
(disappeared prematurely), a flock of about 20 Black Turnstones and lots
more. A pair of Common Loons calling to each other only 30 feet out in the
bay were really special. I don't remember ever hearing them be that vocal in
the winter. No oystercatchers or Rock Sandpipers were on the breakwater, but
Diane Mulholland, a local birder, has seen the oystercatchers along the beach
recently. We also ran into Nigel Ball birding the area.
After stopping at Mystery Bay, we went out to Marrowstone Point and
scoped for Ancient Murrelets. It appeared pretty quiet at first, but after 20
minutes or so we saw our first flyby Ancients. Over the next 45 minutes or so
we saw perhaps 30-40 Ancients. As often is the case, they flew in small
groups of 2 to 8 birds well offshore, landing and being lost in the chop and
swell of the sound's waters or immediately diving in pursuit of their
copepods and other snacks (Look at the new Sibley guide's alcid section for
interesting info on alcid food items).
The best way we found to tell the Ancient from the Marbled Murrelets
was the face pattern (dark chin/throat in Ancients) and the contrast between
the grayish back and darker head. It's subtle but noticeable with a long
enough look in decent light. The white scapular line of the Marbleds can be
impossible to see at times, but you can usually pick out their more contrasty
black and white pattern, w/ white throat and the black line coming down the
side of the neck.
At Point Wilson in Port Townsend we watched the seabirds for another 1
1/2 hours or so. We saw about 50-75 Ancient Murrelets here (and lesser
numbers of Marbleds) as well as lots of other birds. Noticeable here was the
constant movement of Red-necked Grebes which drifted north on the outgoing
tidal-rip well offshore and then flew heavily, with hunched backs, back into
the sound for another feeding bout. A flock of Sanderlings (and 1 Western
Sand.) feeding on the rocks in front of us attracted the attention of a
passing phalarope. It flew in, lit briefly on the water, and then, as
quickly, flew off down the beach. We never got a good enough look to tell
whether it was a Red or a Red-necked Phalarope, although I understand Red
Phalarope is a bit more likely in late November. Another one that got away -
sigh.......

All in all, a great day of birding in a beautiful setting with
wonderful company.

good birding -

Jim Flynn

Federal Way, WA

buteoreg at aol.com


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