Subject: Westport Pelagic
Date: Sep 29 19:01:58 2001
From: Ryan Shaw - rtshaw80 at home.com


Greetings all-

I just thought I would drop a quick note recapping the highlights of the
last scheduled westport trip of the year. The weather wasn't the greatest
that we have seen this year, and we encountered alot of sea spray with
swells reaching over 6 foot, and wind blowing the white caps all over the
place.
Bird numbers were down drastically from a week ago, most notably the sooty
and pink-footed shearwaters, and also skua/jaeger numbers, though we did
find 5 South Polar Skuas and several real good looks at the chum spot of an
assortment of plumages of Pomarine Jaegers. We had 4-5 Short-tailed
Shearwaters this trip, down from over 30 last week.
The highlight was a fly-by XANTUS'S MURRELET that unfortunately only Gene
Revelas and myself were able to get on as it quickly flew north about 30
nautical miles offshore.
The numbers from these last two trips will be updated on the westport
seabirds website as soon as I get the final tally back from Terry Wahl.
Thanks alot to all of you who participated on this years season of great
pelagic trips, and hope to see some of you out next year.
Cheers and Good Birding
Ryan Shaw - Lacey
rtshaw80 at home.com
www.westportseabirds.com