Good morning Tweeters,



Yesterday (Saturday), 8 of us went on a Black HIlls Audubon Society fieldtrip to the Port Townsend area.? Here are some of the highlights:



Point Wilson, Fort Worden SP (9:15-10:30):? 5 alcid species (ANCIENT MURRELET, MARBLED MURRELET, PIGEON GUILLEMOT, COMMON MURRE, & RHINOCEROS AUKLET), HARLEQUIN DUCK, LONG-TAILED DUCK (including a female who remained nearby the whole time), RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, SURF SCOTER, all 3 CORMORANT species, PACIFIC LOON, COMMON LOON,?&?HORNED GREBE.? Among the alcids, the Ancient Murrelet numbers were probably second only to the common murres.? A scope is really necessary to see most of the waterfowl at this location.



Point Hudson (arrived around 10:45 to coincide with the high tide):? We walked to the marina and were greeted by a wonderful, very close-up look at a MARBLED MURRELET, which was bobbing around in the calm marina waters near the boat slips.? My field guides really do not do justice to the crisp contrast of the black and white winter plumage.? We could even see a thin white line in the proximal half of the region where the upper and lower mandibles meet and which is not represented in Sibley.? On the derelict pier, several dozen BLACK TURNSTONES roosted, babbling to one another like a bunch of TV pundits on election day.? Mixed in were 2 ROCK SANDPIPERS.? Out in the water were more alcids, including small flocks of ANCIENT MURRELET zipping by just over the water.? We also saw WIHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, RED-THROATED LOON, &?RED-NECKED GREBE.? Conspicuously absent all day were Western Grebes.



We next went to the Kah Tai Lagoon (OK, after a quick stop at the nearby MacDonalds).? Perhaps the most common species on the water was RUDDY DUCK.? Also present were A. COOT, GREATER AND LESSER SCAUP, GADWALL, MALLARD, &?A. WIGEON.? Dave Hayden also spotted an ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD zoom by near the parking lot.



We drove down to Fort Flager to find that the the western road to the campground area was temporarily closed.? After birding a couple of other spots briefly, we decided to head back to Point Wilson in the hopes of seeing the Yellow-billed Loon that had been reported on and off for the last few weeks.? We arrived back around 2:30 or so and stayed until nearly 4:00, when the light became to dim for distant views, but the loon did not appear.? We did see large numbers of many of the species mentioned earlier, including 100+ Ancient Murrelets.??A male LONG-TAILED DUCK flew overhead and the female was still in the area, even after a River Otter swam out to her, submerged, and popped up right under her, sending her squawking away; she eventually swam back to her favorite spot.? We also saw?a couple of?SANDERLINGS climbing around on the rocks nearby in a very un-Sanderling fashion.



All-in-all, a very fun day with a great group of birders in which several people either saw some lifers or first-of-the-year species.



Good birding,



Lonnie Somer

Olympia, WA

wheelermombi at comcast.net