All-
We completed another seabird survey from the North Head lighthouse in WA
at the mouth of the Columbia River. We have been surveying birds here
twice a month starting in August 2004. I thought I would pass along some
of yesterday?s highlights.

I expected a good river plume front to pass just after sun rise with the
usual spectacle of foraging mayhem. Strangely the front seemed to stall
near shore and push out to the northwest. It finally passed us around
noon and pulled the birds in close.

We had lots of Jaegers in the area. They were beating the fish out of
the Heerman?s Gulls all day. Maybe that?s what the Heerman?s Gulls get
for stealing the fish from Pelicans in the first place? At one point I
could see two Pomarine Jaegers and four Parasitic Jaegers in one field
of view. Many distant unidentified Jaegers were seen headed south.

We had a juvenile Peregrine Falcon buzz us twice throughout the day. It
was light-colored and had a pale crown...tundra population? If so kind
of a bummer. I not sure if the local pair has been successfully
breeding. Anyone know? In past years we would see adults almost every
survey throughout the summer and a dark juvenile in the fall. Not so
this year.

No huge flocks of Sooty Shearwaters. Just a few hundred were seen
mingling in the afternoon with mixed flocks of Common Murres, Brandt?s,
Double-crested, and Pelagic Cormorants, Red-throated and Pacific Loons.
The Brown Pelicans were diving all over out there. Each dive was
followed by a swarm of Heerman?s and California Gulls.

Frequent flocks of Surf Scoters and Northern Pintails were migrating
south throughout the day with Green-winged Teals mixed in. There seemed
to be only a small movement of Red-throated and Pacific Loons flying by.
However, there were hundreds of loons feeding and rafting in the ocean.
The Western Grebes seem to be back by the hundreds to thousands. Only a
few Rhinoceros Auklets were seen compared to an usually high numbers
observed this summer.

The usual number of California and Stellars Sealions, Harbor Seals, and
Harbor Porpoise. No whales.

Best regards,
Troy