Subject: [Tweeters] Washed-up waifs in Grays Harbor County
Date: Jul 28 21:10:00 2009
From: Carl Haynie - hayniec at comcast.net


Hi Tweets,



This past Sunday, Terry Risdon, Matt Haynie, and I conducted our monthly
C.O.A.S.S.T. survey under foggy conditions at Griffiths-Priday State Park.
For those who are wondering, COASST (Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey
Team) is a citizen science program established to identify the carcasses of
marine birds found along beaches from Alaska to California. It's been a
great excuse to get off our sofa and enjoy the outer coast :-)



This was our fourth outing since joining the program, and it was by far the
most fruitful with a record-high seven 'poor souls' discovered (some of our
photos are at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/haynie_risdon/sets/72157621754585651/).



This month's list:



White-winged Scoter (1) - ad. male at surf line in apparent wing molt.

Northern Fulmar (3) - two intermediate(?) morph birds in poor condition plus
one freshly dead light morph we fished out 5 feet from shore

Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel (1)

Glaucous-winged Gull (1, 1st-cycle)

Marbled Murrelet (1) - badly mangled bird with just one leg and foot to go
on (tarsus measured 15 mm; 3-webbed foot)



In May, this same beach produced a beached Black-footed Albatross (being fed
on by an ad. Bald Eagle). I wonder what next month will bring?



Carl Haynie

Sammamish, WA