Migration on a grand scale off the jetty at Ocean Shores this morning. First and more importantly a small black & white shearwater flew north about 200 yards off the jetty. It was moving pretty fast and though the light was good it was hard to see any detailed characteristics other than the dark mantle and wings with white body and underwing. It did have white undertail coverts which would suggest Manx Shearwater but I canot say conclusively it was one.

There were thousands, yes thousands, of terns flying north. The few birds that came close the jetty were common terms but there must have been arctic terms mixed in with them. Flocks were between 50 to 100 birds and at any one time there were 500 or so feeding about about half a mile off the jetty.

Lots of loons pacific and red-throated numbering in the low hundreds. I did see one common loon. Lots of scoters passing also, most were far out to see but the few flocks that came close were roughly 90% surf scoters and 10% white-winged scoter.

Other species seen: 2 jaegers flying north - most likely parasitics; 3 whimbrel; several greater scaup; 4 marbled murrelets flying south; lots of murres flying in both directions.

On the jetty:

1 black oystercatcher
7 surfbirds
2 ruddy turnstones
3 black turnstones
1 spotted sandpiper
5 wandering tatlers


Bottle Beach was empty with at most 200 hundred birds present - 2 black-bellied plover, 20+ semi-palmated plover, 15-20 short-billed dowitchers, 2 whimbrel, 60+ western sandpipers and the rest made up of dunlin.

Bowerman Basin was jumping with birds. Just after high tide at 5pm there were around 20-30,000 birds spread out along the edge of the basin and out on the nearest sandbank.

Stuart
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Stuart MacKay, Seattle, WA