Subject: [Tweeters] New Purple Martin Gourds & Pelagic Birding
Date: Feb 9 12:42:21 2009
From: Carol Riddell - cariddell at earthlink.net


Hi Tweets,

Kevin Li mounted the first natural gourds for Purple Martins on the
Edmonds waterfront in March 2004. They were looking pretty tired
last year and I wasn't sure how many of the six remaining were in
use. So we ordered 8 artificial gourds through the Purple Martin
Society and we got them mounted yesterday. When we took down the old
ones, it was clear that they were failing and falling apart. We hope
that the heavy-duty, number two plastic gourds will hold up a bit
longer. Thanks to Duane Karna for supplying the boat, Dennis Duffy
and Steve Pink for assisting, Edmonds Parks & Recreation for
subsidizing the launch at the Port of Edmonds, and Pilchuck Audubon
for ordering the gourds. The gourds are white and numbered one
through eight so we can identify which are used this season. We
purchased gourds with Starling-resistant crescent entrances. Thanks
to Stan Kostka who suggested enlarging them a bit, as in his
experience those entrances are too small. We would have expected
them to be ready to go since they came from the Purple Martin
Society. We had flat water and no wind yesterday so the take-down of
the old gourds and installation of the new ones went fairly quickly.
That left us a few hours of pelagic birding before Duane had to take
the boat out before the slings were closed for the day. We picked up
Ann Marie Wood who had been photographing the gourd installation from
Olympic Beach.

We headed up the shoreline as far as Lund's Gulch, then motored
across to Possession Point, went in to Cultus Bay, and then over to
Point No Point before heading back to the Edmonds Marina. Steve has
taken over Snohomish County compiling for this year and no one has
yet recorded a Common Murre in county waters. As we motored across
to Whidbey, we noted one. Duane gave Steve the coordinates so that
he can pin it down with maps. It was either a Snohomish or Island
County bird. We saw all three SCOTERS (SURF, BLACK, WHITE-WINGED), a
number of COMMON MURRES and RHINOCEROS AUKLETS. DUNLIN and
SANDERLING were on a Cultus Bay beach along with a number of gulls.
We had all three CORMORANTS (BRANDT'S, PELAGIC, and DOUBLE-CRESTED),
a large flock of BONAPARTE'S GULLS and some BRANT as we motored to
Point No Point. COMMON and PACIFIC LOONS were seen in good numbers
but no Red-throated Loons. RED-NECKED, HORNED, and WESTERN GREBES
were also noted along with GREAT BLUE HERONS. Among the PIGEON
GUILLEMOTS, there were at least three in breeding plumage. It's that
time of year. We had one adult BALD EAGLE at Cultus Bay. A
Steller's Sea Lion was at rest on one of the channel markers. Two
Harbor Porpoises passed us going in the opposite direction as we
motored back to Edmonds.

Good birding,

Carol Riddell
Edmonds