Tweeters:

After participating on the NOAA survey with Barbara and 'ol Bob (see his earlier note). Although seasickness kept me from participating as I normally would, I would only add that we had about 7 Buller's Shearwaters (nearly same as last year) and our first petrel seemed odd--but as light brown as it appeared in 3-5 second study (I had trouble finally coming up with any gray tones for FT Storm-Petrel), the flight was still quite direct. Bob did not see it as I had, oh well.

After the trip I elected to stay local to see what else I could find in w. Clallam County on Saturday.

At about 7:30 am, I had just reached the end of the town of Neah Bay and had just made the almost 90-degree left turn onto the Cape Flattery Rd, when I could hear clear, loud BLUE JAY calls in the shady forest at the start of the road. Quickly pulling off, I could not spot the bird; there were many STELLER'S JAYS (about 30) in the vicinity, and after a few more minutes, the bird sounded off again, but remained invisible--and interestingly, from its perch deep in the woods, it expertly gave Steller's Jay calls as well. Finally after an hour or so, the bird flew over the road and right over me--I could see that it looked shaded whitish below and had the black "necklace" of Blue Jay. But the mixed calls gave thoughts of a hybrid, so I vowed to keep looking until I could get a better view.

As it happened, the bird called repeatedly from the deep woods between the Cape Flattery Rd and Makah Passage Rd, a gravel road that parallels Cape Flattery Rd (before connecting to it aways west) and is a left turn immediately prior (almost adjoining) to Cape Flattery Rd. The city's dump is just a quarter mile down this road in an area called the "Bay Area". The bird would occasionally also call from the scrubbier thickets south of Makah Passage Rd.

I went over to fogged-out Cape Flattery after awhile, and was unable to get much for tubenoses or others of interest given the visibility. But just after 1 pm, I returned to the little dump at Makah Passage Rd and listened for the jay--and it called a couple times. I walked back to the base of the road and suddenly the bird called again, deep in the woods between Cape Flattery and Makah Passage, alternatiing calls with perfect renditions of Steller's Jay and (twice) Red-tailed Hawk. Moments later, the bird finally jumped out onto a mossy maple branch about 20 ft off the ground and about 40 ft from me--revealing itself to be a perfect BLUE JAY with no evidence of hybridization. It had apparently learned Steller's Jays calls somewhere. I watched it for a few moments before it flew off to the other side of the Makah Passage Rd., offering some good views in open perches there.

Other birds of note in the area:

Bufflehead 1 (early female, Neah Bay)
Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk 1 (last night, early, at Blyn near Sequim)
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1 (innermost Neah Bay beach, late)
Willow Flycatcher 1 (getting late, along Makah Passage Rd at Blue Jay spot)

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com


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