Greetings Tweeters,
I spent part of the day on the Olympic Coast yesterday. It was a fine day
with a nice break from the weather, though nothing rare to report. There
were however plenty of birds and it was a particularly nice opportunity to
work on Gull ID. At Kalaloch there were perhaps 2000 gulls at the mouth of
the creek, and another 5000 to 6000 on the beach and just offshore about a
mile south. (I walked but this location could be easily reached by the
beach access south of Kalaloch, Beach 2 (?)).

At the Creek mouth I estimated the mix as follows: 80% were Glaucous-winged
type and California (by GW type I mean Glaucous-winged or hybrid GW). Then
in order of abundance: Herring, Mew, Western, and Thayer's; with Herring
about 3 times the number of Thayer's. The larger flock to the south had a
different mix with many more Mew and Westerns and fewer Thayer's. I
estimated that 30% of the flock was Mew Gulls (this would be a great place
to search for kamtschatschensis I thought, though I could not find one). I
did pick out one very pale 1st-year bird that I thought was probably a
Glaucous-winged x Glaucous hybrid. There was also a striking first-year
bird that was a good candidate for a Vega type. Both of these latter birds
were in the southern flock. This southern group was feeding among a huge
accumulation of flotsam and debris that included a large number of dead
Dungeness Crab, a fair number of geoducks and an odd worm like organism.
This latter creature was about 6 or so inches long, pink, bulbous or
inflated on one end and tapering and worm like on the other. Overall it
looked kind of like a stomach with attached intestines. I have not seen
these before, any suggestions? (These were quite popular with the Gulls by
the way). Hopefully this large accumulation of debris reflected a somewhat
normal storm effect rather than a more ominous type of die off.

Late in the afternoon I stopped in at the Elwha River Mouth. There were
plenty of birds to look at in this location and viewing conditions were
optimal. This is the place to go if you want to look at variety in Thayer's
Gulls, particularly adults. I found it interesting that there were very few
1st-year Thayer's though (since I usually think of first-year birds as the
most common age class in the south sound). I estimated about 2000 gulls
around the river mouth, and another 1000 to 2000 among the kelp and floating
debris to the west. I estimated the mix as follows, in order of abundance:
GW (including hybrids), Mew, Cal., Thayers, Heerman's, Herring, and Western.
There was also a flock of about 30 Bonaparte's that few by. I thought
the 50 or so Heerman's Gulls this late in the year was notable for this
locations. Rounding out the list offshore were 3 species of Scoter, 2
species of Goldeneye, and several Harlequin Ducks. I was surprised to find
no Long-tailed Ducks and almost no alcids. Well... back to the stormy
weather it would seem.

Good birding
Bill Shelmerdine, Olympia
mailto: georn1 at hotmail.com

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