Hello, Tweeters,

Yesterday, 9/14, I led a seabird class for Olympic Park Institute and the
Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, on the OCNMS boat Tatoosh out of
Neah Bay. We had a wonderful day, with light seas, decent visibility, and
lots of bird and mammal activity.

The highlight of the day was a huge feeding flock of birds, whales, and sea
lions about 8 - 10 miles WNW of Tatoosh Island, in water 750-1000 feet deep.
It's very difficult to estimate numbers of birds in a feeding flock that
stretched for at least a couple miles, was continually in motion, with
changing visibilities in broken fog and overcast, but we all agreed that
there were at least 15,000 birds and maybe two or three times more in this
one flock.

To top it all off, we had excellent looks at three humpback whales that
repeatedly spouted, humped, stood on their heads, splashed their flukes,
bubble netted, and cavorted around us for about an hour. While watching the
birds and humpbacks, we saw more spouts in another direction and discovered
a pod of at least 20 orcas moving through the area. We soon found ourselves
completely surrounded by them, with orcas surfacing in every direction
around the boat.

The birds in the feeding flock were mostly California Gulls, Sabine's Gulls,
Glaucous-winged Gulls, Sooty Shearwaters, Northern Fulmars, and Pink-footed
Shearwaters, with occasional Rhinoceros Auklets, Common Murres, Red-necked
Phalaropes, Pomarine Jaegers, and Heermann's Gulls. California Gulls were
easily the most abundant species, with thousands rafting and feeding in the
flock.

I was most impressed by the Sabine's Gulls -- we saw at least 3000-5000+ of
these gorgeous black, white, and gray gulls in tight flocks, all lifting off
the water in unison as the boat moved by. We probably saw a significant
proportion of the north Pacific Sabine's Gull population, on their way from
Arctic breeding areas to winter off South America. Curiously, there were no
Arctic Terns in the flock, even though we looked very hard for them.
Throughout the whole day alcids seemed very scarce, with just a few flocks
of murres and Rhino Auklets in the area. Where are they?

While in the feeding flock we saw dense patches of crustaceans in the water
that could have been euphausiids or mysids, but unfortunately we didn't have
a plankton net to find out for sure. They appeared whitish, not pinkish
like euphausiids usually do, about 2 - 3 cm long, all schooling in unison.
Small silvery bait fish repeatedly broke the surface around us, perhaps
herring, based on their shape and shiny sides. Many larger fish also jumped
out of the water, probably coho salmon.

After viewing the feeding flock we traveled further west, but found most
other areas to be slow compared to the area of the flock. One later bonus
was two pods of Dall's porpoises, one of which rode our bow for a couple
minutes. Away from Tatoosh Island, most Steller's sea lions concentrated at
floating kelp mats outside the entrance of the Strait.

Here's a list of species we saw during the day:

Birds:
Red-throated Loon - 1
Common Loon - 3 (Neah Bay = NB)
loon sp. - 3
Red-necked Grebe - 2 (NB)
Western Grebe - 1 (NB)
Northern Fulmar - 50+
Pink-footed Shearwater - 50+
Flesh-footed Shearwater - 1
Sooty Shearwater - 1000+
Brown Pelican - 1 (Tatoosh Is)
Double-crested Cormorant - 20 (Tatoosh Is & coast)
Brandt's Cormorant - 6 (Tatoosh Is & coast)
Pelagic Cormorant - 500+
Harlequin Duck - 1 (Tatoosh Is)
Surf Scoter - 40
White-winged Scoter - 15
Bald Eagle - 2 (coast)
Black Oystercatcher - 38 (Tatoosh Is & coast)
Marbled Godwit - 2 (NB)
Black Turnstone - 40 (NB)
Red-necked Phalarope - 100+
Pomarine Jaeger - 5
jaeger sp. - 1
Heermann's Gull - 300+
Mew Gull - 8 (NB)
California Gull - 10,000+
Ring-billed Gull - 3 (NB)
Herring Gull - 1
Western Gull - 10 (NB)
Glaucous-winged Gull - 2500 (feeding flock, Tatoosh Is, NB)
Hybrid Western X Glaucous-winged gull - you betcha
Sabine's Gull - 4000+
Black-legged Kittiwake - 1
Common Murre - 200+ at sea, including a few chicks with fathers
Pigeon Guillemot - 5
Rhinoceros Auklet - 300+
Tufted Puffin - 2

Mammals:
Humpback Whale - 3
Orca - 20
Dall's Porpoise - 12
Sea Otter - 1 (on rocks at Tatoosh Is)
Harbor Seal - 10
California Sealion - 3
Steller's Sealion - 75+ (60 at Tatoosh Is and 15+ at sea)

Bob Boekelheide