Hi,

I just spent a week as a lighthousekeeper on Dungeness Spit, Clallam County.
The least expected bird was an Ancient Murrelet on July 15th 2005 at about
0750, which I was able to photograph:
http://www.dragonflyquilts.com/newpage12.htm. (This is my wife's quilting
website - thanks Maggie).

Points of note: 1) The facial adornment on the left was orange towards the
rear, but the right side was the normal white; 2) In some views, the black
and white horizontal marks on the neck/ sides of breast were very visible;
3) The bird was feeding, but clearly not collecting food (as in for young
and assuming that Ancient's collect like Rhinos do); 4) The frequent dives
made photography frustrating, and I was overjoyed to get even the poor
samples shown.

Brad saw one the next day off Vashon, as Tweetered. He recalled that there
was a Birds of Washington July 18, 1993 record for Whidbey Island. Does
anyone know whether that was the Martin Sullivan sighting on a trip with
George Gerdts which I thought was a few years later? I wonder what date that
was.

I'm not sure that I agree that this has been an unusual year for seabirds.
It seems to me that we continue to have better coverage and more skilled
observers. I'm sure that there are more summer sightings to be made, and
would put some money on a documented Kittlitz's Murrelet in July in the next
few years -- after all, they breed to about half way down BC, which is
almost as close as Ancient Murrelet does.

I'll send a more complete bird report for the week when I get organized.

Happy Birding,

Nigel Ball
Bainbridge Island
nigelball at bainbridge.net