March 30, about 2 p.m. -- Two large rafts of Western Grebes in Penn Cove. Seen from Madrona (Drive?). One raft contained roughly 420-450 birds (estimate made by counting 30 on one side, then sequentially applying the area that they covered as a template on the rest of the raft. The other raft appeared to be of about the same size.

A recent Tweeters posting lamented poor abundance of Western Grebes in Puget Sound this spring, compared with previous years. Do my observations of rafts off Seattle's Discovery Park (about 350 birds in total) on March 28 and the rafts in Penns Cove (800-900 birds in total) change that impression? Of course, these could have been the same flocks, which had moved 70 miles north and maybe picked up more birds. Are the flocks still present at Discovery Park?

Ray White
Edmonds, WA
425-672-8268