Hi all,
?
Delia and I and MA Rossing went up to Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island, perhaps spurred on by a recent exciting?tweeter post (all tweeter posts are exciting!).
?
I must be out of the loop here,?not aware that these first were increasing in the?Puget Sound: ?I kept trying to make a huge pinniped off the lighthouse side of the park into a bull Steller's Sea Lion, until it spyhopped and it became obvious it was a male NORTHERN ELEPHANT SEAL.???We'd never seen one in the inside waters before.
?
All our other sightings were of critters in the less-than-8000 lb-category.? At Flagler on the spit side there was a BLACK OYSTERCATCHER looking gorgeous and not skittish, a?WHIMBREL that high-tailed it off the spit,?and a SURFBIRD all mixed in with a fairly large flock of Black-bellied Plovers, Dunlins, Sanderlings and Black Turnstones? plus a WESTERN MEADOWLARK.??
?
We?concentrated for a time over what appeared to be the Yellow-billed Loon, among several Common Loons, but it was awfully far away and our only available scope had called in sick.
?
We also had three Greater Yellowlegs at Mystic Bay.?
?
In the channel between the mainland and Indian Island, There was a pair of MARBLED MURRELETS hunting in the swift-flowing water (another pair off from the lighthouse) along with a River Otter.
?
All in all, it was a great day with many birds and beautiful scenics, but we were a little puzzled by the lack of rain.
?
Ed Newbold ednewbold1 at yahoo.com residential Beacon Hill Seattle.
?
?
?
?
?
?