After much coming-and-going, showery and windy weather lately, I birded the mouth of the Elwha River at high tide yesterday from about 1100-1230 hrs with my scope on a suddenly windless, millpond-still day. In the small brackish pond along the trail from the end of The Place Rd. out to the river mouth were 1 Pied-billed Grebe, 1 Hooded Merganser, 8-10 American Wigeons, and 6 Green-winged Teal. At high water, I saw 150+ gulls bathing inside the river mouth, including ~25 Mew, ~50 Ring-billed, a few Olympic (Glaucous-winged/Western hybrids), and ~75 Heermann's Gulls. Also counted 2 Pacific Loons, 2 Red-throated Loons, 3 Red-necked Grebes, 8-10 Horned Grebes, 8 Surf Scoters, 10-12 Harlequin Ducks, and several Brandt's Cormorants offshore around the river mouth.

Bruce Moorhead
Port Angeles, WA
bruceb at olypen.com