Subject: Thick-billed Murre, and more
Date: Dec 16 21:50:35 2002
From: Birdking88 at aol.com - Birdking88 at aol.com


Hello Tweeters,

Today Bruce LaBar and I worked on area 10 of the Sequim-Dungeness CBC
("the boat") during the first part of the day, and birded Port Townsend in
the afternoon. We had trouble in the morning finding a boat and captain
willing to take us out, because of the weather forecasts. Eventually, we were
pleased (and extremely lucky) to go out in Mike Crim's (a local
birdwatcher's) sail boat for a few hours. We weren't able to get nearly as
many birds as in previous years, as the conditions forced us to turn back
early, before venturing over to Dungeness. Nonetheless, we had good birds. An
immature YELLOW-BILLED LOON was spotted by Bruce on the way to Protection
Island (where we have gotten one the last three years). We also had 78 RED
PHALAROPES from the boat, plus more later in the day (see below). Numbers of
ANCIENT MURRELETS were only 18, as compared to hundreds/thousands the last
couple of years. COMMON MURRES were present throughout in large numbers. The
wind started picking up around 10:00am, so we started heading back into the
John Wayne Marina. A large flock of BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS and DUNLIN were
there when we got back at about 11:30am, as well as a single BLACK
OYSTERCATCHER.

Soon we found ourselves scoping the waters off Diamond Point. There
were another 24 RED PHALAROPES here. At 12:15pm, I spotted a dark-headed
murre flying by in the scope at about 75 yards. Bruce and I had seen a number
of these during the day, all of them obviously COMMON MURRES with some
remaining breeding plumage. This bird, however, was immaculate jet black and
clean white. Not a single smudge of streaking on the flanks, I realized I was
probably looking at a THICK-BILLED MURRE! I quickly called Bruce over, but
not quick enough. It flew around a cliff and out of view. We jumped in the
car and went down to the eastern access of Diamond Pt, and several minutes
later Bruce spotted the THICK-BILLED with a small flock of COMMON MURRES for
a very nice comparison, unfortunately at a great distance now. Just the same,
we got on some important field marks. The totally different structure was
especially apparent, being bulkier with a larger head and blunt bill. The
bill gave the impression of being decurved slightly, and was very thick. The
whole bird was bulky, but it looked compact versus Common Murres which look
elongate. Eventually we were both certain of the identification, and elated
at finding this bird, which was a state bird for Bruce and a life bird for
myself.

The bird was across Discovery Bay from the point, in front of the
yacht club at Cape George. Not quite knowing what to expect, we attempted to
get to the marina there, but upon searching for the spot found that Cape
George is a private gated community with no public access. We went into Port
Townsend, and the squall really began to hit. It was quite an experience at
North Beach, where we had very heavy horizontal rain. There were up to 50 RED
PHALAROPES flying by at a time, well over a hundred total. Soon the violent
squall passed over, and it was actually quite pleasant at places. There was a
MUTE SWAN in the pond across the street from North Beach, a countable bird if
ever there was one in my opinion. At the Point Wilson lighthouse we had
several dozen more RED PHALAROPES flying around the area. Quite a wreck of
them this fall, surely numbering in the thousands in all. There was a pretty
large movement of RED-THROATED LOONS over Point Wilson as well, after the
storm subsided.

That's about it, good birding.

Charlie Wright
Birdking88 at aol.com
Sumner, WA