I spent the morning walking selected beaches on the Long Beach
Penisula to get a quantitative sense of how the recent alcid
wreck looked from north of the Columbia River.

First I walked the beach at Beards Hollow (a little over 2km as
measured by GPS). The beached bird count was fairly light with
one of everything. Except as noted almost everything was in the
wetline suggesting that it was deposited recently.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):

Western Grebe 1
Northern Fulmar 1
Glaucous-winged Gull 1 [1]
Black-legged Kittiwake 1 [2]
Rhinoceros Auklet 1
Horned Puffin 1
Tufted Puffin 1 [3]

Footnotes:

[1] Up in the high wrack line, looked old
[2] On the beach in between the wetline and the high wrack, probably
old.
[3] Very fresh looking


I then drove to Klipsan Beach and walked 1km north then 1km south of
the beach access for total coverage of another 2km of beach front.
Going north the clustered in the first 500meters and also clustered in
the southmost 500meters going south. Again most birds were found on
the wetline, indicating recent deposition.

Also of note was a flock of 800 LEAST SANDPIPERS and a few SEMIPALMATED
PLOVERS roosting on the beach.

deceased bird noted (in taxonomic order):

Western Grebe 1 [1]
Northern Fulmar 2 [2]
Western Gull 2 [3]
Glaucous-winged Gull 2 [4]
Common Murre 1 [5]
Rhinoceros Auklet 19
Horned Puffin 4
Tufted Puffin 2

Footnotes:

[1] high wrack, very old
[2] 1 in wetline; 1 in high wrack
[3] both in high wrack; old
[4] 1 in wetline; old one in high wrack
[5] no head, TBMU eliminated based on covert color and details of
the wing linings.

Total number of species seen: 8

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

Yes, I'm sure, but I still don't think I'll count them
http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/004476.html