The weather started out this morning foggy with a heavy
drizzle, but broke at about 09:00 so I decided to go over
to Washington and walk out the still well surfaced North
Jetty. I got out to the end just before 10:00, found a
comfy rock to sit on and watched the ocean for about an
hour.

There were lots of BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE, most of them
hanging out between bouy 8 and the end of the South Jetty.
I saw a JAEGER (either Parasitic or Pom) chasing gulls
behind one of the many crab boats heading out over the bar
and a single gray-phase NORTHERN FULMAR in the same general
area.

Sometime after about 10:30, picked of a kittiwake in my scope
between bouy 8 and the end of the south jetty. I clearly
saw the dark wingtips with no discernable white mirrors and
the white body and white head with dark mark behind the eye.
I was struck by how dark gray the mantle seemed and it was
not showing the pale flash of the inner primaries. When
I realized that the underwing was also dusky I felt pretty
sure I was looking at a RED-LEGGED KITTIWAKE.

http://home.pacifier.com/~mpatters/obrc/rlki20070307.jpg

I spent about 10 more minutes looking for the bird and comparing
my impressions to other Black-legs, MEW GULLS and other gulls
that were around. Then the last of the clouds burned off and
the sun became too bright for looking south toward the south
jetty. I feel confident that the bird I saw was a Red-legged
Kittiwake.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):

Surf Scoter 55
White-winged Scoter 42
Red-throated Loon 2 [1]
Pacific Loon 20 [2]
Common Loon 10 [3]
Western Grebe 15
Northern Fulmar 1 [4]
Brandt's Cormorant 10
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Pelagic Cormorant 3
Bald Eagle 2
Sanderling 9
Parasitic Jaeger 1 [5]
Mew Gull 75
Western Gull 50
Glaucous-winged Gull 60
Black-legged Kittiwake 50 [6]
Red-legged Kittiwake 1 [7]
Common Murre 6
Rhinoceros Auklet 4
Song Sparrow 1 [8]

Footnotes:

[1] all on water
[2] no definite flight direction
[3] no definite flight direction
[4] single gray phase near bouy 8
[5] jaeger sp. flash in primaries seen and tail projections could
not ID to species.
[6] probably undercount
[7] probably this species; seen between bouy 8 and the south jetty
(Oregon waters); kept in scope for 15+sec; adult non-breeding,
dark gray mantle, no white flash to inner primaries, dusky
looking underwing, white tail, white belly, dark mark on head
behind eye.
[8] singing from a rock about 75m sort of the end of the jetty.

Total number of species seen: 21

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

I'm not jealous or
Why I've never Seen Black-throated Blue Warbler in Oregon
http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/004174.html