The June 1st Pelagic Trip from Westport was, well a rough one, experiencing
8-10 foot swells and 25 knot winds from the Northwest, which bounced the 50
foot Monte Carlo around like a rag doll on the way out. Though we did
pretty well bird wise even though the sea conditions were not to our
likeing. Our efforts were rewarded with outstanding looks at 2 sets of 2
Humpback Whales at extremely close range. Some lucky participants even had
the opportunity to smell one Humpback's breath! And one breached almost
clear out of the water.
Our best bird of the day was a very early South Polar Skua. Primaries were
very worn and ragged on this bird, but its bright golden head and nape
reflected brightly towards us reflecting the suns rays as it approached the
boat at very close range (for a skua).
Otherwise it was a pretty typical Northwest trip. Alcid numbers were down,
but that could be due to the sea conditions, and Common Terns/Bonaparte's
Gulls/Jaegers have pretty much made there way out, as opposed to 2 weeks
prior when we encountered large numbers of some of these species.

The List:

Outside Jetty/Offshore
Pacific Loon 12
Common Loon 9
Black-footed Albatross 87
Northern Fulmar 9
Pink-footed Shearwater 227
Sooty Shearwater 2028
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 55
Brown Pelican 112
Surf Scoter 1
White-winged Scoter 20
Phalarope sp. 3
Parasitic Jaeger 3
South Polar Skua 1
California Gull 6
Herring Gull 1
Glaucous-winged/Western Gull 1182
Black-legged Kittiwake 351
Sabine's Gull 22
Common Murre 135
Pigeon Guillemot 66
Marbled Murrelet 15
Rhinoceros Auklet 523

Jetty/Dock
Double-crested Cormorant 60
Brandt's Cormorant 37
Pelagic Cormorant 58
Wandering Tattler 1

Mammals
Harbor Seal 4
Harbor Porpoise 4
Pacific White-sided Dolphin 4
Humpback Whale - 4

Next Pelagic scheduled for July 13th.
Visit:
www.westportseabirds.com for more information, and past trip numbers. (I
corrected an error on the 2002 numbers from past trips, which did not
include any Common or Arctic Tern numbers).
Cheers and Good Birding/Pelagicing


----Ryan Shaw
----Lacey, Washington
----rtshaw80 at hotmail.com
----(360) 491-1084
----AIM: RTShaw80

----------This machine will not communicate,
---These thoughts and the strain I am under,
------------Be a world child, form a circle,
---------------------Before we all go under,
-------------------------And fade out again
~Radiohead~


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