Hi tweets,

A little glitch in my work schedule allowed me to sneak-in a morning boat
ride today. I wanted to see if some of the reported jaeger activity off of
Edmonds might also be occurring in the Jeff Head area (a few miles to the
southwest of Edmonds). Although I only found one Parasitic Jaeger, sun,
calm waters, and some interesting bird activity made for an enjoyable
outing. Here are the highlights:

Red Phalarope - A flock of about 350 Red-necked Phalaropes contained a lone
Red Phalarope. The phalaropes were gathered in a fairly tightly-packed
group, so counting them and giving them close scrutiny was easy, especially
with calm waters. They are usually scattered about and that was the case a
bit later. The Red Phalarope was slightly larger, it had a thicker bill with
a pale yellow base, and the gray back lacked the streaks of the Red-necked
Phalaropes. Even at close range the two species can be remarkably similar.
The size difference was more obvious to me when the phalaropes were flying.

Parasitic Jaeger "attack" - It is well known that the jaegers migrating
through Puget Sound spend much of their energies attacking terns and gulls
in attempt to steal fish. However today, for the second time in the last
couple of weeks, I witnessed a Parasitic Jaeger in full pursuit of a flock
of phalaropes. Although neither attacks were successful, I really thought
the pursuits were quite interesting. Today's attack was even more remarkable
when I realized that the jaeger's efforts seemed to be directed at an
"out-of-place" shorebird. At one point when I was attempting to get an
accurate count on the phalaropes, the whole flock took flight. I thought I
would be clever and try to pick out the Red Phalarope within the flying
flock. To my surprise I became fixed on a plain, unpatterned medium-sized
shorebird, bigger than the phalaropes, that somehow had entered into the
flock as they twirled around. On two occasions the majority of the flock
would temporarily land back on the water and it was quite apparent that this
medium-sized shorebird was not willing or able to do the same. An adult
Parasitic Jaeger entered the scene (or perhaps was the cause of the scene
and I just didn't realize it). Finally, the jaeger was pursuing this one
shorebird as they both left the phalarope flock and gained altitude for a
short while before the jaeger gave-up. The lone shorebird continued south.
Incidentally, I am fairly confident that the shorebird was a golden plover
based on the features I could pick-out. What fun!

American Coot - One out in the middle of Puget Sound northeast of Blakely
Rock. Highlight you ask??!! American Coots are a rare bird on the Bainbridge
Island check-list and anytime I can add one to my Island year-list, it is a
highlight. Weird spot for one in any event.

It was a nice morning.

Cheers and good birding,

Brad Waggoner
Bainbridge Island, WA
mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com