I thought a brief summary of our pelagic trip would be of interest and also
because our main webmaster is off chasing Texas specialities.
The ocean was remarkably calm and the cloudy skies were excellent for
viewing. The highlights birdwise were: seven species of alcids including
Ancient Murrelets and good numbers or Cassin's Auklets. Two Cassin's were
seen right by the enterance to the Westport marina, easy viewing for the
crabbers and fishermen on the various docks. Also three beautiful breeding
plumaged Tufted Puffins were seen further out at sea. All three jaeger
species were seen with only the Long-tailed seen at a long distance. Good
numbers of Black-legged Kittiwakes and Sabine's Gulls added to this
remarkable day. No rocky shorebirds were seen because the Westport jetty was
crawling with huminoids, however inside the marina there is a little sandy
beach area that had 87 Marbled Godwits!
The MAIN highlight of the day was the Whale Show!! We have a usual
introductary talk before our boat goes out mentioning that to be on the
lookout for any whale sightings. We do get Orca, Gray Whale and Humpbacks
occasionally. Today, however,we got excellent views of three very uncommon
whales that I personally have never seen in Washington waters.
With the help of Bill and Tim Shelmerdine, Phil Anderson and others we were
able to key out two similar species: the Fin Whale and Sei Whale. We had
sightings of three Sei and at least one Fin (possibly two). These animals
were all seen in Grays Canyon about 35 land miles out.
As we started heading back in, we saw some more whale blows and thought maybe
they were the ones just seen. However, getting closer, we noticed a very
dark whale with a scarred body, a large forehead (mellon) and that this whale
had a beak! There were three of them together foraging for food. Three
BEAKED whales, the boat personal were going nuts! As we figured out that they
could only be Baird's Beaked Whales, one of them BREACHED completely out of
the water three times to our astonishment! This is very rarely seen done by
this species.
A very remarkable pelagic trip indeed.
Our next trips are on May 5 and May 18th, come join us and please visit our
web sight at www.westportseabirds.com.


Bruce LaBar
Tacoma, Wa.
Mail to: snyderlabar at aol.com