Natalie and I spent a couple of hours watching the relatively small
numbers of birds at Point No Point Sunday evening, and as dusk descended
we kept catching glimpses of a pair of small diving birds that appeared
to be Rhinoceros Auklet. They had the W shaped wings which they used to
dive and swim through the water, an orange bill, two white streaks going
back from their eyes, and they made some of the most humorous water
landings I have seen this year - they just seemed to throw themselves at
the water.

Would Rhinocerous Auklets be found in this area during the spring? The
major field mark that we missed while scoping these birds was the
protruding "horn" section of the orange bill, but all of the other
markings made us think these were most likely Rhinos.

By the time we reached Point No Point, the activity in the marsh area had
died down. Other than hearing a Killdeer, seeing a handful of Redwing
Blackbirds and watching a Northern Harrier fly overhead and off to the
north toward Whidbey Island (scaring off the 50 or so Brandt that had
gathered on the beach), there wasn't much going on in the marsh. But in
the open water to the north and east of the point we watched terns,
Horned Grebe, Red-necked Grebe and a couple of Common Goldeneye. It looks
like dusk is a good time to watch the activity in this area right now...

--
Rob McNair-Huff <mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com>
White Rabbit Publishing <http://www.whiterabbits.com>
Publisher of Mac Net Journal <http://www.whiterabbits.com/MacNetJournal>
The Equinox Project <http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html>
Co-author of Insiders Guide to the Olympic Peninsula