Tweeters,

Last Friday and Saturday evenings (7/20 & 7/21) the Olympic Peninsula
Audubon Society sponsored a couple of Puffin Dinner Cruises to
Protection Island from Sequim Bay as part of the Sequim Lavender
Festival, for which I was the bird spotter. Despite the cruises'
name, we didn't really have puffin for dinner, but we were able to
watch puffins while eating some tasty salmon aboard the Glacier
Spirit from Port Townsend.

For historical reference, there were at least 24 puffins rafting
together off the SW corner of Protection Island on 7/20 and at least
20 puffins at the same location on 7/21. Since the island's breeding
population is purported to be 10 - 12 pairs, perhaps we viewed the
bulk of the puffin population, assuming that others weren't
incubating or brooding chicks on the island at the time, which could
be possible. We saw adults carrying fish while they swam on the
water, but we did not see any flying to burrows with fish. In
previous years we saw puffins carrying fish to burrows on the cliff
face above the SW shoreline.

There were also several loose feeding flocks west of the island
mostly composed of Rhinoceros Auklets, and many Rhinos at nightfall
carrying hefty fish that looked like herring towards the island. The
feeding flocks included fair numbers of California Gulls, including
juveniles from this year. There was also a surprising number of
murres rafting west of the island (~100-150), likely pre-breeders
since the closest murre colony is at Tatoosh Island. Also near the
island -- lots of Pigeon Guillemots of course, a couple Marbled
Murrelets, passing Harlequin Ducks, one Pacific Loon and one Western
Grebe. And 25-30 Bald Eagles harassing island gulls. Mammals
included many harbor seals, one male elephant seal hauled out at the
island's east end, and a few harbor porpoises off the Miller
Peninsula. Despite threatening rain, the weather was beautiful both
evenings, with virtually calm winds, just a little drizzle, and
magical cloud formations.

FYI - Olympic Peninsula Audubon is putting together a couple of three-
day cruises on the Glacier Spirit this October to the San Juan
Islands from Sequim, including one trip from 10/1 - 10/3 that will
focus on birding and one trip on 10/8 - 10/10 that will focus on
sightseeing. For more information see their website
www.olympicpeninsulaaudubon.org, or http://
www.olympicpeninsulaaudubon.org/pdf/San_Juan_2007_Flyer.pdf

Bob Boekelheide
Sequim