Subject: Ancient Murrelet at Dash Pt. Pier
Date: Nov 21 19:42:14 2002
From: Lynn & Carol Schulz - linusq at worldnet.att.net


Hi Tweeters:
I saw one Ancient Murrelet this afternoon from the Dash Point Pier. It was
floating on the water fairly near shore, out from the point which you can
see to the west of the pier. (The shore runs east west here, and you are
looking toward Tacoma.) The bird was with a few Bonaparte's Gulls, and was
dwarfed by a nearby Rhino Auklet. I saw it first at 3:15 floating and
paddling around. It remained there for 6 minutes before sinking out of
sight. It kept reappearing in the same area, and started diving more
frequently. Sometimes it stayed out of sight for up to 2 minutes, but
always reappeared. When I left at 3:50 it was still there.
I had arrived first at Dash Point State Park at 1pm. I was looking for
fast-flying small birds in lines. I never saw any Murrelets fly. I met
another birder, and we drove west to the Dash Point Pier. We didn't see any
Murrelets there, and another birder was leaving after watching for them for
an hour and not seeing them. The fog had lifted and it was cloudy and
fairly warm. No wind. Next we drove south to Brown's Point and still no
Ancient Murrelets. At that point my friend left. I came back to Dash Point
pier at 2:45 and just waited. Still no birds flying back and forth.
Finally at 3:15 I was scanning about 5 Bonaparte's Gulls w/ the scope. They
weren't feeding in a rip. They were just paddling around. And there was
the Murrelet, doing the same thing. What a nice surprise. All alone, and
paddling about. I had wonderful views at 20X to 45X. Never could see its
little yellow bill though. It was too far away to see that.
Dash Point Pier is down Markham Road off of hwy 509 west of Federal Way. It
is west (it seems like you are driving south) of Dash Point St Park. In
DeLorme, pg 63 the pier is right by Dash Point. If anyone wants directions
to these S King County beaches, I could forward a long, chatty report I
wrote about a field trip we led down there last year. Ask me off-list and
I'll send it to you. The directions are from Fife, so you avoid driving
through Federal Way. Quite a bit of nice birding all along there.
Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines, WA