Tweeters,
Stimulated by Nigel Ball's and Gene Hunn's reports on the Arctic Terns
in the Dungeness Spit Caspian Tern colony, Judy Mullally and I took the long
hot and somewhat boring hike out Dungeness Spit yesterday.
We found one adult and one flying immature and saw the adult feed the
juvenile. We had several sightings but never could be sure of more than one
adult and one juvenile.
The colony is past Graveyard Spit by a short distance (northeast of
Graveyard, closer to the lighthouse). The Caspians have obviously had a good
breeding season unlike last year when a coyote destroyed most of the early
nestings. We also saw at least two adult and two immature (judging by the
dark bills) Black Oystercatchers wandering around.
I suspect that the Arctics are off the nests and will soon be gone. If
you go, it is probably a nine mile hike and the best birds are on the inland
side which is closed but you can come up through the beach logs to the Spit
divide and look occasionally. The walking is easier at low tides and if the
wind is calm it can be very hot. The heat waves are horrendous but a scope
at low power is very useful.
We had a smattering of other sightings: about 50 Sanderlings in small
groups fading out of alternate, an alternate Pacific Loon, some alcids,
cormorants and Judy saw a probable Tufted Puffin flying past. We saw more
shorebirds when we looked in to Dungeness Bay but nothing rare and there was
a flock of 150 eclipse plumaged Common Mergansers there.
Unfortunately, the Oregon researchers monitoring the tern colony must
have been off for the day as we never saw them.
Bob Norton
norton36 at olypen.com
Joyce (near Port Angeles), WA