Hello Tweets,

This afternoon my mother and took advantage of the calm,sunny weather and ventured over to the Dash Point area between 3:45pm-5:15pm with our primary searching made from the Dash Point public fishing pier in Pierce Co. with an additional check made at nearby Dash Point State Park in King Co. Our main efforts were to relocate the Northern Fulmar previously reported by Hans Feddern yesterday evening at the Dash Point public fishing pier. This most likely would represent the first county record of Northern Fulmar in Pierce Co. found by Hans. We arrived to the location this afternoon at 3:45pm and immediately located 3 dark-morph Northern Fulmars swimming approxiatemetly 30-40 yards offshore from the actual fishing pier,then within a few more minutes of scoping the very calm waters to the north we located additional Northern Fulmars including 2 intermediate-morph birds and two light-morph birds,of which one bird we photographed off the tip of the fishing pier along with an additional dark-morph bird that we photographed for comparison. We tallied a total of 12 Northern Fulmars from the fishing pier with an additional bird presumably one of the same birds we counted noted from the public beach at Dash Point S.P. Most of the Northern Fulmars were observed flying or swimming further offshore with only 4 birds that came within 30+ yards from the fishing pier,as all birds were easy to separate from gulls,etc with exceptional lighting and calm conditions. Away from the Northern Fulmars our main highlight during our visit to the Dash Point public fishing pier was 2 Ancient Murrelets that were observed twice during our visit,which we believe were the same individuals as noted first flying approxiatemetly 90 yards offshore heading west towards Pt.Defiance, then within 20 minutes we observed presumably the same two birds flying within the same offshore distance flying to the east towards Des Moines. This is our earliest personal record of this species at this location,as most records normally occur in November,so perhaps more observations will occur within central/south Puget Sound in upcoming days/weeks.

Our visit to the Dash Point area was very productive and rewarding with many highlights noted and conditions couldn't have been better as we made special effort scoping the offshore waters in addition to waterbirds noted closer to shore. Our third highlight of the day came just before we left the public fishing pier with a 1st winter Franklin's Gull flying amongst a flock of 80 Bonaparte's Gulls, in which the bird was immediately separated from the smaller,paler Bonaparte's Gulls by the birds larger,bulkier size,and darker more distinctive plumage. The entire flock of gulls circled northeast offshore from the public fishing pier,then eventually lowered in elevation and headed straight to the public beach at Dash Point S.P.,where we later reloacted the Franklin's Gull foraging,preening and resting amongst the same amount of Bonaparte's Gulls with a few Glaucous-winged Gulls and Mew Gulls. The flock of gulls remained and allowed fairly close,but limited approach for photographs to be taken of the Franklin's Gull,in which the bird remained on the immediate shoreline until we left the location at 5:15pm when the bird flew out into East Passage,where they landed and rested on the calm water. A list of our entire list of notable species from the Dash Point public fishing pier(including species noted at Dash Point S.P.)include the following:

8 Horned Grebes
5 Eared Grebes
92+ Western Grebes
12 Northern Fulmars
5 Pelagic Cormorants
32 Am.Wigeon
3 Canvasback
13 Greater Scaup
28 Surf Scoters
8 White-winged Scoters
2 Common Mergansers
1 adult light-morph Parasitic Jaeger
1 first-winter Franklin's Gull
240+ Bonaparte's Gulls
18 Common Murres
2 Ancient Murrelets
64+ Rhinoceros Auklets
17 Band-tailed Pigeons

On our way home we stopped along Marine View Drive(S.R.509)south of Browns Point,where we located a few additional species for our afternoon that were observed in vast logboom area including the following:

1 male Common Goldeneye
1 Spotted Sandpiper
14 Black Turnstones
7 Least Sandpipers


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net




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