Hello Tweets,

Today Jim Pruske and my mother and I enjoyed a rewarding day birding and weather wise in Jefferson Co.,chiefly in the Port Townsend and Ft.Flagler State Park areas. We had initially anticipated on a fairly wet day,but lucked out with very calm conditions and mostly sunny skies most of the days. We did encountered darker clouds and he end of the day moving in from the northwest over the Olympic Mountains then encountering heavy rain on our way home from Bremerton to Tacoma. We had a great day with a total of 94 species within 7 hours of birding. Our main highlight of the day was a subadult POMARINE JAEGER observed well from a pull-off just north of the Point Wilson Lighthouse at Ft.Worden State Park at 9:45am,where the bird pursued scattered flocks of Bonaparte's Gulls off Point Wilson. The viewing conditions were superb,as the bird originally flew in from the west and came within 20 yards off the Point Wilson Lighthouse before continuing to the south . Within 15 minutes the same bird returned and continued chasing good numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls before it continued flying off to the west towards the Strait of Juan de Fuca. In all observations the bird revealed it's white belly and brown-white barred upperparts(extending from the upper breast over onto the head)giving the bird an obvious hooded appearance. The white flashes on the outer upper and underwings were extremely visible even with the naked eye(including a second smaller white flash on the underwing),as the bird whirled around chasing the Bonaparte' Gulls steadily in a slow manner and the bird also appeared very stocky and bulky in overall structure. The bird's bill appeared fairly thick and bi-colored. It was an exciting bird to watch,especially considering the date!

While watching the Pomarine Jaeger in two spotting scopes we also located a single immature BROWN PELICAN from this same location foraging by itself in the water a short distance beyond the kelp line,as well as 6 ANCIENT MURRELETS flying from west to east along the heavy current line. Small numbers of other waterbird species were also encountered from Point Wilson including one of two Long-tailed Ducks we had all day! It was surprising not too see many more Long-tailed Ducks considering this area is known for relatively good numbers of that species during the winter months. Another highlight from Point Wilson was a NORTHERN SEA LION(formerly known as Steller's Sea Lion). This very large light brown-colored "eared" seal swam and submerged near the surface of the water just off the kelp line before drifting to the east and represented our best mammal of the day!

Throughout the day we stopped at many locations beginning at the Kitsap Memorial State Park in Kitsap Co.(accessed along S.R.3 south of the Hood Canal Bridge),which was one of the several locations that produced good numbers of songbirds,etc. We the proceeded west to Port Hadlock via Hwy.19 through the Chimacum Valley. We made one stop at Hadlock before heading onto Port Townsend and spending several hours in that area with all stops being productive. Our first stop in Port Townsend began at the Port Townsend Marina areas near the "old" ferry terminal,where we encountered 6 species of roosting shorebirds. We then drove straight to Ft.Worden State Park and birded a good hour before heading south and stopping by the Kah-Tai Nature Lagoon. After birding in Port Townsend we made a nice stop at a small lake along Discovery Rd. near Adelma Beach. It is here we observed 2 TRUMPETER SWANS(including an immature and an adult bird)amongst a nice assortment of other waterfowl.

We then worked our way towards Ft.Flagler S.P. by making another nice stop for passerines near Hadlock before checking both sides of the Oak Bay County Park. Our best highlight from this location consisted of an immature BROWN PELICAN that flew in from the north before settling down onto a small out cropping of rocks near the main jetty. We had some assumptions that this could have been the same bird that we observed earlier in the day at Ft.Worden State Park,but that remained undetermined. We spent the remainder of the day until 3:30pm at Ft.Flagler State Park,which in itself hosted several good birds. We birded the east part of the park first,where we scoped the offshore waters from the Marrowstone Point Lighthouse. Here,we located 5 separate flocks of ANCIENT MURRELETS ranging from 5-30 birds in a single flock. It is also here we obtained our best and closest views of the birds for the day unlike from Point Wilson. We watched a group of 6 Ancient Murrelets come within 30 yards offshore,as they dove and surfaced almost constantly before swimming further out. All the other Ancient Murrelets were much,much farther offshore in rougher waters and we could have noted more birds with more time spent scoping. It was a great sighting to see this target species!

We spent the remainder of our ay walking the 1/2 mile or so long spit at the west end of the park,where we scoped several species of shorebirds on Rat Island. We also scoped both sides of the spit and located several species of waterfowl including 34 "Black"Brant and good numbers of Harlequin Ducks and Red-breasted Mergansers. Our most unusual species by walking the entire spit was a single WESTERN MEADOWLARK foraging in and amongst driftwood at the base of the spit. We ended the day by scoping a flock of shorebirds that flew in from Indian Island with the main highlight in that flock being 2 WESTERN SANDPIPERS.

A list of additional highlights noted during our nice day included the following:

Eared Grebe
1 bird at the Kah-Tai Nature Lagoon in Port Townsend
1 bird at Mystery Bay State Park
1 bird in Kilisut Harbor at Ft.Flagler State Park

"Black"Brant
2 birds off Point Wilson at Ft.Worden State Park
34 birds at Ft.Flagler State Park

Cackling Goose
1 bird of undetermined subspecies(with Canada Geese)along Discovery Rd. just north of the Adelma Beach community.

Long-tailed Duck
1 bird at Port Townsend
1 bird off Point Wilson at Ft.Worden State Park

Hooded Merganser(notable count for location)
125 birds on a small lake near North Beach County Park(accessed just west of Ft.Worden State Park)

Ruddy Duck
34 birds at the Kah-Tai Nature Lagoon in Port Townsend

Black-bellied Plover
3 birds at Hadlock
35 birds at Port Townsend
67 birds at Ft.Flagler S.P.(including birds observed on Indian and Rat Islands)

Greater Yellowlegs
1 bird at the Kah-Tai Nature Lagoon in Port Townsend

Black Turnstone
62+ birds at Port Townsend
35 birds at Oak Bay County Park
30 birds at Flagler S.P.(including birds observed on Indian and Rat Islands)

Surfbird
1 bird at Port Townsend
3 birds at Oak Bay County Park

Western Sandpiper
1 bird a Port Townsend
2 birds at Ft.Flagler S.P.

Dunlin
150+ birds at Port Townsend
4 birds at Oak Bay County Park
230+ birds at Flagler S.P.(including birds observed on Indian and Rat Islands)

Bonaparte's Gull
250+ birds off Point Wilson

HEERMANN'S GULL
15 birds off Point Wilson

Marbled Murrelet
62+ birds off Point Wilson
5 birds off the Marrowstone Point Lighthouse

Mourning Dove
1 bird at the Kitsap Memorial State Park,Kitsap Co.

Hutton's Vireo
1 bird near Hadlock

Lincoln's Sparrow
2-3 birds at the Kah-Tai Nature Lagoon in Port Townsend



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit513 at msn.com