My trip to the northern OlyPen Wed-Thu yielded some interesting birds. Six hours of seawatching from Cape Flattery turned up good numbers of Sooty- and one Manx-type shearwater, 3 Parasitic Jaegers, including a dark-morph, and a small group of unidentifiable storm-petrels at dusk. All the expected alcids (puffins, murres, guillemots and Rhino Auklets) were out in force. In poor evening light, I had a foursome of what may have been the previously reported Xantus' Murrelets, or some very dark-backed-appearing Ancient Murrelets. At least three bald Eagles and a Peregrine Falcon made forays out to Tatoosh Island during my watch. Dusk brought four Black Swifts out over the cliffs, dancing at and below treetop level, to round out the show.
Except for abundant oystercatchers and Spotties, the shorebird showing was very slow in that area.
The bluff overlooks over Dungeness Spit netted me one bird of note: a distant Cassin's Auklet.
Three Crabs was the highlight. At Helen's Pond, I had one Semipalmated Sandpiper among the Westerns and Leasts, and an ungainly downy Virginia Rail chick weaving in and out of the cattails.
Now the kicker. At high tide yesterday afternoon, I sat at road's end by the 3 crabs Restaurant, picking through the thousand or so gulls on the narrow beach from the parking lot southwards. The vast majority there were Californias, with a few Ring-bills and even fewer Mews scattered throughout. A Bonaparte's-type gull swimming just at water's edge caught my eye. It was in first-summer plumage, with a longish, slender, dark bill, and a well-defined hood of dark gray flecked with white, entirely white around the base of the bill. The white eye-crescents were very full and puffy-looking for a Bonaparte's. When the bird finally stepped onto the beach, I saw his legs and feet, which appeared black, until the right light showed reddish tinges at the "knees." It stood for a moment beside the California Gulls, which outsized it, by my estimation, by about 5 or 6 inches. At that point, a Peregrine flushed the entire flock, after which I was unable to refind the gull in
question. When it took flight, I saw the underwing: Palest toward the axillaries, with dusky primaries, but no well-defined dark trailing edge.
I got to the car, dashed off notes, and looked through Harrison's seabird book and Sibley, where I couldn't match the leg/foot color to anything, but all else seemed to point to Black-headed. Upon arriving home last night, I pulled out Olsen & Larssen's gull book, where I found a match in Photo #639, page 449, as well as painting #5 on p. 441. These pictures show legs and feet so dull a red that they appear almost black.
Now, I'm no gull expert. I hope that some of you tweeters who CAN claim that will be on the peninsula this weekend to refind, and hopefully photograph this bird. It SHOULD be relatively easy to pinpoint (though I couldn't refind it...), as there were no Bonies to confuse the issue.

Good birding!

Jeff Bryant
Seattle


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