Dennis & All,

Almost daily I observe a very large feeding flock of gulls (2,000+-) off
of Jefferson Head south of Kingston. Unfortunately, they are very
distant as I am standing on the beach with my scope at Fay Bainbridge
Park on the northeast side of Bainbridge Island. A large percentage of
the gulls are dark and I can only assume that most are likely Heermann's
Gulls. I have had a real desire to go check-out this flock with my boat
but the relentless winter weather and winds have prevented a comfortable
boat outing. I would still like to keep my teeth.

Although a few weeks back there was a good concentration of gulls near
Restoration Point on the southeast side of the island, gull numbers
quite often drop off dramatically south of Jeff Head. I think that
Heermann's gulls moving south off of Edmonds are either heading to that
breakwater roost or further on to Jeff Head in search of food. I can
only speculate, but I would imagine that when the Heermann's Gulls
"migrate south" they head back out via the Straits. Last year a good
number still stuck around well into November and I had one off of the
island on the first of December .

Along with Gene and Dennis my attempts to find any ocean pelagics during
this stormy period were unsuccessful. I should have known that I would
be unsuccessful given that I didn't receive a phone call from Vic Nelson
during this time. In previous discussions with Vic, it appears as though
a very strong westerly wind blasting down the Staits of Juan de Fuca is
a key element for tubenoses and such to appear in central Puget Sound. I
think the strong winds were primarily out of the south and I do not
recall seeing any forecast of strong westerly winds in the straits.
Anyway, perhaps this might be useful information on future searches.

Cheers,

Brad Waggoner
Bainbridge Island, WA
mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com