Subject: [Tweeters] Port Angeles-to-Victoria ferry CBC Sunday 12/16
Date: Dec 18 14:47:37 2007
From: Scott Atkinson - scottratkinson at hotmail.com



Tweeters:

Michael Hobbs, Sherry Anderson and I undertook the M/V Coho trip from Port Angeles to Victoria, revived for this year, on Sunday. Suffice it to say the weather was horrible: we had SE winds that held at 40 mph, with gusts to 55-60 mph--huge wind waves, swells that hit hard and spray that not only hit amidships and stern, but on three occasions hit the bow! Really felt bad for Sherry and Mike, who, like many others, were seasick.

Most of the birds were the usual ones, although the captain took a route to try to save us from the worst of the weather--jogging northeast on the way into Victoria so as to have a smooth ride at the last coming into the harbor, and then jogging way out west on the way back, before correcting back to the SE into PA harbor. The highlights were a juv. YELLOW-BILLED LOON that Sherry and I had from the bow just before we took off and before Mike arrived; and near the entrance to Victoria harbor, a RED PHALAROPE (heard only in the spray below) and a SURFBIRD, a count first. We had just a single N. FULMAR (brown-morph) on the way over. We had a total of 41 species for the trip, definitely a better-than-average number and no doubt helped by the two observers which joined me this year. Sorry about that weather Mike and Sherry!

So sign of any rocky shorebirds or Snow Bunting out on Ediz Hook.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com
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