Hello, Tweeters,

Last Friday (9/19/08), Barb Blackie led an Olympic Coast National
Marine Sanctuary seabird survey out of La Push on the R/V Tatoosh.
The cruise track for these surveys travels west about 30-35 miles
across the Juan de Fuca Canyon, then north a few miles, then back
east to the coast near Carroll Island, then south to La Push along
the coast. The weather and visibilities were superb, with calm seas
and low swells. The crew onboard included Barb Blackie, Ken Wilson,
Scott Atkinson, Ron and Rosemary Sikes, John Barimo, Burt Foote, Dave
Kirner driving the boat, and me. We used standard seabird survey
methods, covering a 300 m swath on one side of the boat as we motored
about 10 kts.

It was a very birdy day, particularly for tubenoses offshore. Most
impressive was extraordinarily high numbers of Pink-footed
Shearwaters, which far outnumbered Sooty Shearwaters in all areas
except right near the coast. It's usually the other way around, so
where are the Sooties? Somewhere else? Still in Alaska? To the south?

We encountered huge feeding flocks of thousands of birds loosely
associated with a few fishing boats over the Juan de Fuca Canyon,
consisting, in approximate order of abundance, of Pink-footed
Shearwaters, Northern Fulmars, Sooty Shearwaters, California Gulls,
Sabine's Gulls, large-pink-legged gulls, Cassin's Auklets, and Black-
footed Albatrosses. Mid-September is clearly the time for Sabine's
Gulls off the Olympic coast -- over the entire area there were
certainly a few thousand, perhaps a significant chunk of the Pacific
population. Curiously, we didn't see a single Arctic Tern with them.

For the entire cruise there were fairly low numbers of Common Murres
on the continental shelf, scattered Cassin's and Rhino Auklets mostly
offshore, small numbers of Fork-tailed Storm-petrels and Red-necked
Phalaropes, lesser numbers of Buller's Shearwaters and Pomarine and
Parasitic Jaegers, and at least 3 South Polar Skuas. Only one Tufted
Puffin. The jaegers appeared to mostly be pirating young California
Gulls.

Brown Pelicans were thick near La Push, with upwards of 1000 roosting
on Cake Island, several hundred bathing at the mouth of the
Quillayute River, and more streaming in from the south.
Unfortunately we didn't have time to adequately search gull roosts at
La Push harbor, but they mostly consisted of Olympic Gulls,
California Gulls, and Heermann's Gulls. In La Push harbor Scott
sighted two Baird's Sandpipers feeding at low tide with other peeps,
but there were no rocky sandpipers on the breakwater.

Marine mammals were also excellent on the cruise, with humpback
whales, Dall's porpoises, harbor porpoises, Pacific white-sided
dolphins, Steller's and California sealions, harbor seals, and one
each northern elephant seal and northern fur seal.

Overall, our impression is that ocean productivity offshore of the
Olympic coast is doing okay right now and pelagic species are doing
well. At the continental shelf-break and in the vicinity of the big
seabird feeding flocks we could see large shoals of small fish
breaking the surface, the apparent attraction for the birds.

Thanks very much to Barb and NOAA for these surveys in the National
Marine Sanctuary!

Bob Boekelheide
Sequim
bboek at olympus.net



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