~ This is great news considering the alarmist posts... migration is a
complicated process indeed.

Capt Dave Drewry
Port Townsend, WA


----- Original Message -----
From: "Wayne C. Weber" <contopus at telus.net>
To: "TWEETERS" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 9:32 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Where have all the scoters gone? (With apologies to
PeteSeeger)


> Tweeters,
>
> Steve Ellis has commented on the low numbers of scoters,
> especially White-winged Scoters, in Whidbey Island's Penn Cove
> this winter. However, because the numbers are down in one area,
> it does not mean they're down everywhere. Phil Pickering has
> been tallying phenomenal numbers of scoters (both Surf and
> White-winged) moving south off Boiler Bay (near Newport, OR)
> during "seawatches" there for the last 3 weeks or so. Below is Phil's
> report to OBOL (Oregon Birders On Line) for Jan. 13.
>
> 67,000 scoters moving past in only 2 hours? Sheesh!!
>
> Since last December 23, according to my tabulations, Phil has recorded
> about 203,000 White-winged Scoters and 296,000 Surf Scoters,
> nearly all of them moving south, in 15 morning seawatches. Unless these
> scoters are sneaking back north in the afternoon or in the evening,
> that is one gigantic scoter movement, at a time of year when one
> would not expect them to be moving in such numbers.
>
> So, don't write off either White-winged or Surf Scoters as
> candidates for Threatened Species status just yet!
>
> Wayne C. Weber
> Delta, BC
> contopus at telus.net
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Phillip Pickering" <philliplc at harborside.com>
> To: <obol at lists.orst.edu>
> Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 10:05 AM
> Subject: [obol] Boiler Bay
>
>
> 7:30-9:30 (1/13):
> Overcast with light rain, wind S 10-20, 10-15 ft swells.
>
> Scoter S flight quickly up to a sustained 600-1600/min.
> combined, dropping only gradually after 8:25. Still 100/min.
> moving when I left.
>
> I'm out of town the next two days, but if this is still going on
> next week I'll have more time to look around and see if they
> might be piling up somewhere locally.
>
> 700+ Red-throated Loons (S with as many as 150 on the water)
> 30+ Common Loons
> 1 Red-necked Grebe
> 10 Western Grebes
> 10 Brandt's Cormorants
> 30 Pelagic Cormorants
> 8 Canada Geese (S, looked like westerns)
> 12 Black Scoters
> 40000+ Surf Scoters (most in first hour, a few on the water)
> 27000+ White-winged Scoters
> 1 Mew Gull
> 2 California Gulls
> 250+ Western Gulls (feeding, S)
> 20 Glaucous-winged Gulls
> 2 Black-legged Kittiwakes
> 200+ Common Murres (S)
> 119 Marbled Murrelets (S, most in pairs with a few groups to 6)
>
> Phil
> philliplc at harborside.com
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