Greetings Tweeters,
I was able to obtain excellent views of the Arctic Loon near the Hansville
Store between 1030 and 1100 this morning. Weather and water conditions were
near perfect despite forecasts to the contrary. Persistence paid off when
searching today. The bird seemed to appear from the Skunk Bay area (NW) as
the Sullivan's had observed in a recent post, even though I had observed few
loons in this area earlier. At the time it was the closest loon and preened
for approximately 15 minutes about 200 yards from shore. It then swam to
the east, perhaps 150 yards away, and then cycled offshore to the north and
caught the main current NW and back toward Skunk Bay where there were a
number of Pacific Loons well out. The bird stayed on the surface for 20 to
25 minutes, until it reached the offshore current line and began diving
actively spending much time underwater and only brief periods on the
surface. By about 1100 it was well out to the NW and getting beyond the
limits of reasonable identification, although the white flank patches are
quite visible from a remarkable distance. At close range head shape and
bill size and shape are good marks and distinctive as others have noted.

I began the morning at the Hansville store at 0700, no other birders were
present. Later I met a group of birders from Everett who were able to view
the Arctic Loon before it moved too far offshore. I spent much of the
morning scanning from both the store area and Point No Point. Initially the
only Pacific Loons found were in the vicinity of Point No Point and appeared
in groups of twos and threes from the area well west of the point, riding
the rapid outgoing current past the point and towards Hansville and
continuing well beyond. At 1030, on my third visit to the store area, the
bird was suddenly there to the NW. Earlier there had been few Pacific Loons
in this area; on my second visit there were few numbers of any species.
This time there were large numbers of birds at current lines well to the NW
including good numbers (at least 10) Pacific Loons and several Common Loons.
There are lots of birds in the area and it is a very busy place. The
current was strong today throughout my visit and there were several Harbor
Porpoises close to Pt No Pt early on. Other notables included at least 5
Townsend's Solitaires, 2 in the community between the points and 3 off of a
side road further to the NW (perhaps Admiralty St.?).

Cheers and good birding
Bill Shelmerdine
Olympia
mailto:georn1 at hotmail.com

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