Since the first message got through I will report the other good birds for the day.? It was a 13 hour trip about 40 miles west of Westport.? We were fishing for halibut, but only half of the boat could fish at one time so I had plenty of?opportunity to watch the many birds that cruised around the 12 boats in the area and the ones that followed us in on the 3 1/2 hour return trip?while the deck hands cleaned fish all the way.?

We had as many as 14 Black-footed Albatross around the boats all day, plus the one Laysan.? There were many Sooty Shearwaters and a good number of Pink-footed?Shearwaters.??I believe I saw as many as 4 Short-tailed Shearwaters and as?many as 12 or more Northern Fulmars in both light and dark morphs were with us much of the day.?We also had 12 or more Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels flying in and out, and?3 Leach's Storm-Petrels danced about the water between the boats.? There were many gulls about, Glaucous (2), Glaucous-winged, Western, Herring, and hybrids.? Three Sabine's gulls flew by on our trip in.? We also had?Rhinoceros?Auklets, Common Murres?and a?Tufted Puffin.? Several Common Terns flew by the boat as well as a huge flock of Arctic/Common Terns flying about 3 miles off shore.? They were too far off to get a positive identification. ?Several large flocks of Red-necked Phallaropes skimmed the water.? Large numbers of Pacific Loons
were so full from feeding that they could not even lift off the water as the boat approached them.? They provided great intertainment for the fishermen as they fluttered and flapped out of our way.? Red-necked and Common Loons were also seen.? All the cormorants were present as well as one Surf Scoter close to shore and between 12 and 14 Brown Pelicans.

I've been on a lot of pelagic birding trips but few that provided more variety and good numbers.

David Richardson
Gig Harbor
d.lrichardson at yahoo.com?