Hello All,
MerryLynn and I just returned from three wonderfully cool days of birding and recharging the old batteries on the Long Beach Peninsula. We saw an avian event along the open beach that we have never seen along any Washington coast beach. Between Klipsand Beach and Ocean Park there were roughly 1200 Brown Pelicans, 800+ Caspian Terns, 1400+ DC Cormorants, 400+ Heermann's Gulls, 2000+ Common Murres and 35+ Sooty Shearwaters all feeding on bait fish in the break line just off shore. 500-600 Brown Pelicans were perched on the beach at a time preening, molting and loafing. With them were 200+ Heermann's Gulls and 300+ Caspian Terns. We looked very hard for any Elegant Terns that might be in the area, but saw none. This large number of beach resting pelicans really attracted the attention of the locals and tourists. There were many that stood in awe and watched the spectacle and then there were those that had to do all they could to put these resting birds to flight. When these folks came on the scene we took the opportunity to do a little education about what they were seeing and how important this rest on the beach was. We also explained that many folks were enjoying watching these birds resting and feeding. Most of these energetic bird chasers were ignorant of what the birds were and why they were there. We also located a large consentration of Pelicans and Caspian Terns just north of the north jetty of the Columbia River. We estimated 1300 Caspian Terns, many with leg bands. This entire area is closed to the public so we scoped from the orange fencing to the north. We also saw 20 Whimbrel, 3 Red-necked Phalarope, 2 Black-bellied Plovers and again no Elegant Terns in this huge very loud assembly of terns. This was 10-13 August 2008.
Later Mike