Hello tweets,

Netta and I went down to Ocean Shores yesterday afternoon and stayed until
midday today (Sunday, 5/11). Our goal was to see some shorebirds, and there
were relatively small numbers of shorebirds of them, but enough and enough
other birds to make it a great trip. Especially nice was the full-time
sunny weather and downright balminess when we got away from the coast this
afternoon.

We saw not one (1) but two (2) spectacles of nature down there, maybe even
three (3). One was visible from the base of the Point Brown jetty this
morning from 8:30-9:00. A brisk NW wind but very good viewing conditions
allowed us to scope well out to sea. The bird movement was spectacular to
say the least, with almost all birds moving north past the jetty. They were
moving north from farther south and/or coming out of Grays Harbor and
turning right. I was unable to say which for sure, but both were happening..

Hundreds and hundreds of Common Murres streamed by, all in breeding plumage,
the largest murre movement I can recall seeing out there for a very long
time. Where were they going? Coming from? Along with them were much
smaller numbers of other species, but even these less-common species were
still in impressive numbers of dozens to hundreds. The most common were
Pacific Loons, well spread out but at times in loose flocks of a few dozen
birds that seemed to be associating, as there would be a loon push of 20-30
birds at once, then nothing for a few minutes. Also fairly common were Surf
Scoters and Rhinoceros Auklets; the latter was the only species that we saw
obviously heading into Grays Harbor as well, presumably birds from Point
Grenville breeding colonies.

Along with the Surf Scoters were a few White-winged Scoters, either in
little flocks of their own species or with the Surfs, and very few Greater
Scaups and Green-winged Teals in these same flocks. Migrating seabirds
really seem to like to fly in flocks, and murres and rhinos were often
mixed, as were murres and scoters. We saw some lines of birds that had as
many as four species in them; singles must join flocks out of choice.

We saw two Marbled Murrelets come out of the harbor and one flock of Ancient
Murrelets heading north that performed typical ANMU behavior of diving into
the water from flight right off the end of the jetty.

What else was involved in these flocks? One Common Loon in breeding plumage
and one Red-throated Loon in nonbreeding plumage; we saw others of these
species in the harbor, but they clearly weren't a prominent part of the
movement of Pacifics. Very small numbers of gulls were heading north,
including Bonaparte's and Mew, and I saw at least two Sooty Shearwaters,
having to flap rapidly with relatively little gliding into that strong wind..
They really looked migratory rather than foraging.

One Parasitic Jaeger flew into the harbor, and a few of all three cormorants
and Pigeon Guillemots were flying around, but they weren't part of The
Movement.

The other spectacle we saw, just as neat, was the formation of feeding
flocks in the harbor. We watched these flocks from the shore south and east
of the parking lot at the base of the Damon Point spit, both late afternoon
Saturday and mid morning Sunday, and they varied from fairly close to shore
to well out in the middle. Our attention was captured by big flocks of
Brown Pelicans, which amazed me by their numbers so early in the summer. I
think of them just barely starting to show up in May, yet we certainly saw
100+ birds. More surprising, perhaps 90% of them were adults in full
breeding plumage, with the dark brown hindneck and beautiful reddish
pouches. I wondered if these were all failed breeders, thus an early
migration, and if we were in for El Ni?o conditions this year.

The pelicans were diving on schools of fish, either anchovies or herrings,
and catching them with ease. Every pelican I watched after it dove (several
dozen observations) had at least one fish that it swallowed. Some dove from
fairly high in typical BRPE dives, but many dove from only a few meters
above the water, often at a slant, by just lifting up into the wind and
dropping to the water again; this is not something I've seen Brown Pelicans
do very often. The pelicans were mobbed by gulls, during the afternoon only
Western Gulls, and I've never seen that species behave as a pelican
kleptoparasite before. Heermann's and Laughing are the gulls that are well
known to parasitize Brown Pelicans. The pelicans swallowed their catch in a
very stereotyped fashion. They would slowly raise their head with bill
pointing straight down along the neck, presumably slowly draining water from
it with the bill tightly closed to prevent the small fish from escaping.
Then when most of the pouch was out of the water, they would lift it
suddenly and swallow its contents.

On the next morning there were much larger gull flocks associated with the
pelicans, and I saw at least 4 Heermann's, 3 adults and an immature,
harassing the funny birds whose beak holds more than their belican. I was
also surprised at seeing that many Heermann's this early in the year. There
were also large numbers of Bonaparte's and small numbers of kittiwakes, both
adult and immature of both species, at these flocks. No Common Terns seen,
and only one Caspian, in Grays Harbor.

In addition, there were large numbers of Pacific Loons and a few Common and
Red-throated with the same flocks, also fair numbers of Rhinoceros Auklets.
Interestingly, there were no murres at all in these flocks.

A third mini-spectacle was the windrows of Velella, the beautiful blue
before-the-wind sailor (a relative of the Portuguese man-of-war) all along
the ocean beach. There were tens of thousands of these helpless little
floaters washed up on the beach by the strong winds, and gulls were scarfing
the smaller ones down as fast as they could. I think shorebirds were eating
some of them as well, at least Ruddy Turnstones (which will eat anything).
The gulls on the beach (not all of them eating Velella) included a
kittiwake, a Herring, and some California and Ring-billed. Lots and lots of
very white first-year Glaucous-winged but didn't see a single adult of that
species.

Anyway, the spectacles and the good weather really made this a great trip,
and we topped it off with four species of Odonata, frogs, and garter snakes
at the Schouweiler Road wetlands.

Dennis Paulson
--
Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115