Yesterday, the VENT tour group, led by Bob Sundstrom and Kim Eckert and several of us Westport Seabird leaders; Gene Revelas, Scott Mills, Bill Shelmerdine and myself, enjoyed a wonderful day on the ocean. The weather was good for visibility with clouds and a little fog in the morning and mostly sunny skies in the afternoon.

Some of the birds we saw include: Black-footed Alabatross, Northern Fulmar, Pink-footed Shearwater, three Buller's Shearwaters, over 3,000 Sooty Shearwaters, one Short-tailed Shearwater and one Manx Shearwater, seen close to shore. Several flocks of Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels were seen near the shelf edge to Grays Canyon. We had several come in close to our chum spot some 35-40 miles out. One South Polar Skua gave all aboard excellent views after getting close to it on the water. Pomarine, Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaegers were also closly viewed with one adult Long-tailed hanging out right over our boat. Gulls viewed were Glaucous-winged, Western, California and 20-30 Sabine's Gull, with one juvenile in one of the flocks. Hundreds of Common Murre's, a few Pigeon Guillemots, several small groups of Cassin's Auklets, Rhinoceros Auklets and one winter-plumaged Tufted Puffin were the alcids seen. Because of a pretty strong chop of waves, only a few Red-necked Phalaropes and one Red Phalarope were seen.

In shore and around the Westport jetty there continues to be hundreds of Brown Pelicans, Heermann's Gulls and our first sighting of the late summer of a Black-legged Kittiwake. The three species of cormorants were also seen close to the mainland. Five Marbled Godwits were roosting on the inside of the marina.

Highlights of the mammals viewed include: two Humpback Whales, harbor porpoise, harbor seal, California Sea Lion and one Northern Fur Seal.
For further information on our pelagic trips, please contact our website, www.westportseabirds.com.

Bruce LaBar
Tacoma,WA
blabar at harbornet.com