Tweets,
Sorry for the late post, just returned from a long weekend at Ocean Shores,
logging over 3 hours on the jetty. Highlight was two MANX SHEARWATERs
together within binocular range off the jetty at 11am Saturday. I recall
this species has been sighted in mid-May before and hung around a few days.
I did not see them Fri evening or Mon morning, and was on the jetty 1-1/2
hours before spotting these. Nearly uniform all-dark above (brownish-black
with some slightly browner areas) and all-white below extending through the
tail. Gliding flight was low and amazingly effortless, even into the wind,
compared to the more labored flaps-and-glide of the Sooties (3-5000 of them
swarming Fri pm). May have been loosely associating with a flock of terns,
with few if any scattered Sooties present at the time. Size roughly between
Sooty and Common Tern.
Other highlights on/from the jetty:
- Jaeger with long tail
- Red-n Phalarope (21), W Tattler (1), Blk Turnstone (1), Spotted Sndpr (1),
Sanderling (18, full array of plumages)
- Blk-l Kittiwake (~30 Mon am following Sunday's weather)
- Peregrine Falcon (1)
- large numbers (100+) of Pacific Loons & Rhino Auklets (flying south)
- Barn Swallow (2 Mon am with shifted wind briefly from ENE)
Also:
- Marbled Godwit (12, base of Damon Point, low tide)
- Short-b Dowitcher (6)
- Semi-pal Plover (5)
- Olive-s Flyctr (several in the wooded SE quadrant of the peninsula, eg,
near the community club & Bill's Spit)