Hi Tweets,

Late this afternoon I took a boat ride toward Jefferson Head. There is a
very large gathering of gulls and murres in the central Puget Sound at
this time. They are concentrated in area on the King/Kitsap County line
halfway between West Point & Jefferson Head. They are feasting upon herring.

I figure that there were about 6,000 Common Murres and 1,500 gulls. Most
of the gulls are California, Glaucous-winged, and Heermann's. In amongst
the gulls were three juvenile SABINE'S GULLS. They spent most of their
time flying so it was easy to pick them out with their distinctive upper
wing pattern.

Josh Hayes reported a Parasitic Jaeger off of the Seattle/Bainbridge
Island ferry a few days ago and then asked if this was an unusual
sighting. I had five total Parasitic Jaegers (3 adults & 2 imm) during
my ride. In most years, between the middle of August and the first of
October, Parasitic Jaegers are not really uncommon in Puget Sound. I
have been seeing them from the east shorelines of Bainbridge Island on a
regular basis lately (ie no boat required). Point no Point can be a
great place to view them. Now, seeing a Pomarine or Long-tailed Jaeger
on Puget Sound - that is a different story. I would consider both of
these species of jaeger to be rare here.

There were small numbers of Red-necked Phalaropes (75+-). I was hoping
to scrutinize the flock to see if a Red was present, but a Peregrine
Falcon (dark, first-year bird) flew-in and gave chase to the phalaropes.
The falcon's two minute effort out in the middle of Puget Sound was
unsuccessful. I enjoyed the performance though.

Cheers and good birding,

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