Greetings Tweeters,
Saturday?s pelagic trip out of Westport was a great trip by almost any measure. There were lots of birds throughout the day along with plenty of marine mammal activity. As far as sea conditions go it was just one of those really nice days on the water. I think skipper Phil Anderson captured it nicely when he pointed out that those on board hoping to experience the Grays Harbor Bar were going to be disappointed. The day started out a bit on the quiet side with spotty bird activity in the nearshore Sooty Shearwater, Common Murre zone. However, before long bird activity began to pick up with good numbers of Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters and a few Pomerine Jeagers. It seemed like about 0800 we stopped to spend time with our first of several Humpback Whale pairs. At this point things started to get really good and seemed to stay that way through most of the day. A couple of Tufted Puffins on the water and the first of many Bullers Shearwaters appeared around this time. A close in basic Red Phalarope within a small group of Red-necked provided for a nice comparison.As we continued further on our route off shore we began encountering rafts of shearwaters on the water and we spent some time moving from group to group. The vast majority were Sooties, with good numbers of Pink-footed and a few Bullers scattered throughout. As numbers of tubenoses continued to build, we picked up out first Fork-tailed Storm Petrels and Black-footed Albatross. Scanning into the distance a large flock of birds, a lot of splashing and a number of breaching mammals attracted our attention. As we moved into the area, we were surrounded by a few hundred Pacific White-sided Dolphins, a few Dall?s Porpoises, and thousands of shearwaters with small numbers of Northern Fulmar and several other species. It was amazing to be surrounded by so much activity and it was difficult to move on, but we were still well short of the deeper water areas along the outer part of Grays Canyon and the edge of the shelf.Moving on we had great looks at a couple of Flesh-footed Shearwaters and Arctic Terns. We began encountering more Albatross and Storm Petrels and were finding good numbers of Cassin?s Auklets and Sabines Gulls. In the deeper water we found the first of 4 Long-tailed (some really nice views in a couple of different plumage conditions) and 2 Parasitic Jeagers. We chummed for a while in deeper water over the shelf edge and had nice views of many species at close range and on the water. The photographers on board had a lot of good opportunities on this trip. A sub-adult Long-tailed Jeager hung around the boat and provided a nice study in Jeager identification.As we began the trip back we again encountered good numbers Cassins Auklets and Sabines Gulls. It was not long before we encountered our first South Polar Skua of the day, a distant bird that was seen by most but perhaps not by all on board. Before long though we were able to find a very cooperative young skua in a raft of Sooty Shearwaters that stayed on the water and allowed very close approach and nice photo ops. The return trip added numbers to our tally and we passed numerous rafts of shearwaters on the water. At some point along the way we noticed a large feeding flock and adjusted our course to have a look. We estimated the flock size at about 5000 birds, dominated by Sooty, then Pink-footed Shearwaters. A group of 3 Orca feeding in the midst included a calf and provided a very nice addition to our growing mammal list. Well to the south we could see another group of birds that looked equally as large. Scanning the distance one could see numbers of birds in the air and rafts of shearwaters on the water for much of the day. It was truly just one of those really good days on the water.Final numbers will be posted on the Westport Seabirds Website in the coming weeks. Overall numbers for Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters, Cassins Auklets, and Sabines Gulls seemed well above seasonal averages. On the other hand Northern Fulmar and Common Murre numbers were quite low. Rounding out the list were Humpback Whales, Orca, Pacific White-sided Dolphins, Dalls and Harbor Porpoises, along with several Mola Mola and Blue Sharks. Spotters for the day included Gene Revelas, Ryan Shaw and me. Skipper Phil Anderson and his wife Chris ran yet another excellent trip. Mystery birds that must remain anonymous aside, this was a great day on the water.Good seabirding,Bill Shelmerdine, Olympia WAmailto: georn1 at hotmail.com



Be the filmmaker you always wanted to be?learn how to burn a DVD with Windows?. Make your smash hit
_________________________________________________________________
Talk to your Yahoo! Friends via Windows Live Messenger. Find out how.
http://www.windowslive.com/explore/messenger?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_messenger_yahoo_082008