Greetings Tweeters,
Yesterday, July 15, we had a fine day on the water out of Westport.
Weather and sea conditions were good, and for the most part bird numbers are
picking up over the past couple of trips. The trip was an outer slope trip,
meaning that it continues several miles beyond the usual Grays Canyon Trip
and therefore spends more time in deep water. One of the target species of
these particular trips (June-July) is Leach's Storm-petrel which prefers the
deeper waters beyond the shelf edge and is very difficult closer to shore.
Other species more often encountered in this zone include Long-tailed Jeager
and Xantus's Murrelet.

Well yesterday's trip did not disappoint and species diversity was good
although overall numbers seem on the low side. A full listing will be
posted on the Westport Seabirds Website within a couple of weeks. For now
here are a couple of highlights. The trip began with a Cassin's Auklet in
the boat basin, great looks were had by all. This is a species that is
typically encountered well off shore and is often difficult to get good
looks at. By the time we hit the harbor mouth we had encountered 5 species
of Alcids.

Offshore we encountered a couple of fishing boats and there were good
numbers of Black-footed Albatross and a particularly large Ocean Sunfish in
the area. Good views of Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters, Northern Fulmar
and Fork-tailed Storm Petrel were had in this area. Probably the best birds
of the trip were found further offshore, beginning just beyond longitude
125, the usual limit of the Grays Canyon trips. The deeper water areas here
produced good numbers of Leach's Storm-Petrel, 2 Xantus's Murrelets, and 3
adult Long-tailed Jeagers.

The trip back in had very pleasant weather and sea conditions and produced a
couple of new species for the day. A group of four Sabines Gulls, suddenly
appeared next to the boat, and three sub-adult Parasitic Jeagers proved very
cooperative giving up great views of each. The jeagers rounded out the
so-called Skua slam, with Skua, Pomerine, Parasitic, and Long-tailed all
being recorded on the trip. The number of mammal species was on the low
side, though we did encounter a couple of groups of Dalls Porpoises on the
way out and a Humpback Whale on the return trip.

Cheers and good birding,
Bill Shelmerdine
Olympia WA.

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