Hello All:
Today Bruce LaBar and I, with the tremendous help of Mike Crim and a nice
sailboat, went out of John Wayne Marina and covered the offshore areas of
the Sequim-Dungeness CBC. We had excellent, calm conditions on the water
which made viewing great.

The stand-out highlight was an alternate Thick-billed Murre that crossed our
bow closely enough for us to see the white gape line in addition to the
structure and plumage differences. This bird was well away from any land,
between Protection Island and Dungeness Spit. We first saw the bird flying
west as we were heading towards Protection I., and a few minutes later saw
the bird heading in the opposite direction.

Also in the course of our 20 mile cruise, we had 8 sightings of at least 7
individual Yellow-billed Loons, all of which appeared to be adults. This is
a high count for Washington State. Less jaw-dropping, but still nice, I had
a single Red Phalarope fly by just outside of Sequim Bay.

Ancient Murrelets were out there in good numbers, with nearly 1000 tallied.

Cheers,
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington