Subject: Close encounter w/ Fulmar - Long Beach, 10/25
Date: Oct 26 17:04:18 2003
From: Matt Bartels - mattxyz at earthlink.net


Yesterday [Sat 10/25], with promises of good weather, I headed out to
the Long Beach Peninsula.

I talked with a ranger at the Ft. Canby State Park entrance and
learned that an algae bloom nearby was apparently beaching a lot of
sick seabirds. She told me it was possible to rehabilitate these
injured birds if they were brought in, and asked to keep an eye out
as I walked the beach.

Sure enough, on my return walk, not far from the North Jetty, I
almost walked right by a Northern Fulmar sitting quietly on the
beach. I admit, it took me a moment to realize that I was indeed
looking at a tubenose & not an 'immature gull w/ a broken off upper
bill'? Once alert, though, I sat and watched from point-blank range
for a good bit: It is not often, I expect, that I'll be allowed such
close observation of a tubenose [or most any bird, I guess]. Next, I
gently wrapped my fleece around the fulmar and picked it up. Its
protests seemed at best half-hearted - a couple waves of its open
beak and one bite down on the sleeve of the jacket.

As I carried it to the car & then drove it to the ranger station, the
fulmar remained calm [ok, a little shuffling did convince me to turn
off 'Car Talk' when I first started up the car, but how unexpected is
that really?]

As I handed off the fulmar, the ranger seemed to be expecting several
such deliveries and was pretty confident that rehabilitation and
recovery was expected. That optimism allayed the tinge of guilt I was
feeling about enjoying a close-encounter obviously contingent on the
bird being unwell.

Buoyed by the buzz of that experience, I kept birding the peninsula
for the remainder of the day.

A couple other sightings:

RED PHALAROPE: 1 on the Ft. Canby SP beach, 4-5 just offshore up at
Leadbetter Point SP.

DUNLIN [1000+], SANDERLING [100+], BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER[20-30]
-Leadbetter SP, along the west-side beach, between the yellow-trail
entrance to the beach and the blue trail entrance to the beach.

ORCA - Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. 2 of these were not far off
the point below the lighthouse - I only saw the size, black back &
fin though, and don't really know my mammals well enough to be
completely confident in the ID.

PILEATED WOODPECKER - Near the trail up to the Lighthouse, actively
calling & drumming.

On the way home I eked out the last bits of daylight to note that
over 120 Canada Geese of one of the smaller races were in a field
next to the Julia Butler Hanson NWR headquarters. I believe they were
'CACKLING' CGs, judging from the lack of a noticeable neck-ring on
any of the ones I could see.


Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA



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