I finally remembered to send out the requested CBC Western Grebe data. The
Oak Harbor Washington CBC tallied 985 Western Grebes (mostly in Penn Cove),
down from the count high of 2,344 in the year 1991. Obviously that's a steep
drop off but the numbers have rebounded since the horrible years of the late
'90's and early '00s. In 1998 there were 44 tallied and only 26 the next
year. None were seen in 2002, possibly due to the extremely bad weather the
day of the count.
Surf Scoters are holding their own after a steep decline with 2,249
reported this year. The count high was in '93 with 4,774. Worst of all is
the drop in White-winged Scoters: 2,446 in '95 to 203 this year.
Penn Cove is receiving heavy hunting pressure from professionally guided
hunts. I'm passing the White-winged data to the appropriate agencies so
they'll have a better understanding of the situation. Scaup numbers are
down, too.
Please contact me if you need additional information.
Steve Ellis Coupeville, Wa.
sellis at coup.wednet.edu