In my experience over here around Port Angeles, Ancient Murrelets seem to
appear a bit later in the winter (e.g., Jan.-Feb.) and typically along the
outer (Strait) side of Ediz Hook.

Bruce Moorhead
Port Angeles, WA
bruceb at olypen.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad Waggoner" <wagtail at sounddsl.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2005 10:59 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] More on Ancient Murrelets


> Gary, Wayne, Gene, Rachel & all,
>
> I was glad to see Rachel's post about the "abundance" of Ancient Murrelets
> on a recent Coho trip. At least they are being seen somewhere. My
> experience lately from the shores of Bainbridge Island and other spots in
> Kitsap County have yielded the same results as Gary at Rosario Head and
> Gene along the shores of King County - no Ancient Murrelets to be found.
> In the past two years at this time of year I have had a fairly easy time
> locating them in local waters either by scanning off of Point no Point or
> by taking my boat off of the east-side of Bainbridge Island. I discussed
> Ancient Murrelets with Vic Nelson of Point no Point on Wednesday and he
> has only seen them once this season and I believe he said it was only a
> few birds.
>
> This discussion motivated me to try a boat search this morning from
> Restoration Point, Bainbridge island up to north of the Kingston Ferry
> Dock. I did not find any Ancient Murrelets. As with some earlier trips
> this Fall, I did find some nice "rips" off of Jeff Head with some bird
> activity including about 20 Common Murres, roughly 80 Bonaparte's Gulls, a
> couple hundred Mew Gulls and a few California Gulls and Glaucous-winged
> Gulls. Once again Jeff Head proved to be the "birdiest" spot on the trip.
> I saw about 20 additional Common Murres and 4 Rhinoceros Auklets at other
> locations along my route and added one adult Herring Gull and one adult
> Thayer's Gull at a spot where a Sea Lion was tossing around a salmon.
>
> Perhaps these things go in cycles, but there really does seem to be a lack
> of alcids in the Central Sound at this time.
>
> Brad Waggoner
> Bainbridge Island, WA
> mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com
>
>
>