Not long ago a friend told a group of birders that though he'd seen a Great Gray Owl that day he was not going to say where because the nearest homeowner asked him not to. Fair enough. Not everyone welcomes birders like Blaine does, but then, we WANT people to come here, as with the Hawk Owl last winter, seen by hundreds with nary a squeak from the starving locals. Might have been different if it had been seen closer to Semiahmoo, but it wasn't.
So now we have had a number of people see our Yellow-billed Loons, Darryl Thompson (<birds at cmc.net> ) proving that there is more than one here. Linda and I went looking today after another visit to Kestrel Acres. Very little going on there.
Later, at the west end of Marine Drive across from Resort Semiahmoo, we saw that same huge raft of Pacifics and Commons we saw Saturday with Marv Breece's group along with harbor seals and Double-crested Cormorants (and a few Pelagics) and who knows what else going after - herring? About a half-mile offshore. Spectacular sight as the sun set behind the many birds diving and splashing rather energetically.
Several of the Yellow-billed Loon(s) sightings have been in the marina, either from the promenade walk along the south edge of the parking lot or on the floats themselves, walking slowly (i.e. quietly) around through the boats.
There are three access gates to walk the floats (a "dock" is the space beside a structure - a pier or float). The first two are locked, but you can get the current combination from the harbor office near the middle gate. Right now they are: Gate 1 - 1964* ("star"), and Gate 2, 1966. The third one is open. If you have a canoe or kayak the boat launch is inside the marina breakwater on the east end and on a nice day could offer great birding access, since the loons and so on will sometime surface right next to you even when you're back in the protected area.



Jack Kintner <kintner at nas.com> Blaine, WA