Hi all,

My wife and I spent several hours in very choppy water out on Puget Sound
this morning, mostly off the southern end of Whidbey Island. Although our
neighbor had invited us along in his boat to chase fish, we were quickly
(and easily) distracted by all of the bird life that was out and about.
Common Murre?s were present in abundance, as were Red-necked Phalaropes.
Rhinoceros Auklets were a regular sight and several scoters (surf and
white-winged) were seen flying by. The highlight of the morning though was
drifting into a huge school of herring that were being feasted upon by a
sizeable mixed flock of gulls, murres and auklets. Heermann?s Gulls,
Bonapartes, Ring-billeds and more were grabbing fish by the mouthful, and we
spotted a Parasitic Jaeger or two cruising by as well. The line of birds
that were eating the herring stretched as far as the eye could see, and
Harbor Seals and Harbor Porpoises were also getting in on the action. As we
crossed back over to the eastern shore of the sound and headed south toward
Edmonds, we ran into several rafts of Western Grebes numbering about 2 dozen
birds each. I tried to see if I could spot any Clark?s among them, but did
not see any. As we pulled into the Port of Edmonds a Great Blue Heron was
fishing the breakwater. After we moored the boat and went to move the boat
trailer, we returned to find that a crow was busy cleaning up the boat. We
were snacking on bread, cheese and chips while we were out on the water, and
apparently we had dropped a few crumbs. The crow did a very thorough job of
removing them all. The Port of Edmonds should put him on the payroll!

All in all it was a great morning on the water despite the windier than
expected conditions. I took a few photos and will try to get them up on my
web site later today or tomorrow.

Happy Birding,

Kevin Mack
Edmonds, WA
www.goatislandimages.com