Tweeters:

Spent July 3-5 in Clallam County, mostly from Port Angeles west. It was not
chiefly a birding trip but I did manage to stop by Graysmarsh; it was real
quiet on the 3rd, and on the 5th, the only birds of some note being 35
Caspian Terns, a Short-billed Dowitcher and a few Heermann's Gulls at the
beach. The eve prior to July 4th we had surprisingly strong west winds at
the Salt Creek Recreation Area (Tongue Pt), which resulted in a CASSIN'S
AUKLET showing up on the morning of the 4th, a bit west of their regular
range; there were nice numbers of the other regular alcids here, including
35 Marbled Murrelets, all flying westward. Also, toward evening on the 4th,
there were about 750 SOOTY SHEARWATERS off Cape Flattery, with small groups
flying steadily southbound, amongst which I also had one intermediate-morph
N. FULMAR and an unidentified shearwater, sp. through the scope, along with
hordes of the more expected seabirds and a scattering of Tufted Puffins.

I was surprised how abundant Cal. Gulls have become. On the 4th from Tongue
Pt. there were about 700 present, seemed a bit early for such numbers; there
were 9 Heermann's here also.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com

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