Tweeters:



Conducted a 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. sea-watch at Cape Flattery, Clallam County yesterday, tapping into a decent flight of southbound shearwaters (five species):



Sooty Shearwater 905

Short-tailed Shearwater 2 (in close)

dark shearwater sp. (Sooty/Short-tailed) 200

Pink-footed Shearwater 24

MANX SHEARWATER 1 (in w/Sooties and 1 PF)

white-bellied shearwater, sp. 5

Northern Fulmar 5 (all dark morphs)



and also from the Cape:



all three loons

very high cormorant count: Brandt's most common

Brown Pelican 400

SANDHILL CRANE 30

N. Shoveler 10

all three scoters, chiefly Surf

Black Oystercatcher 75 (now there's an entertaining bird!)

Heermann's Gull 1200

Pomarine Jaeger 1

Savannah Sparrow 6 right on Cape, atypical habitat



Also of special note: a RUFF (or reeve) flew by southbound at a good clip and height, about 150' up and well out over the open ocean. True, I could not see the white tail "u" from this angle, but this bird was simply too large, dark below, and plump/stocky for either Pec or Sharp-tailed.



Sea-watch notes: visibility was outstanding and, consistent with others' reports, I noted that the tubenoses were willing to come in a good deal closer than usual. Also, a number of them were on the inside of Tatoosh I (that is, the Strait side), where not usually present. That said, I missed a number of other expected species, such as Tufted Puffin, Cassin's Auklet, RN Phalarope, terns, etc, although my focus was on the shearwater flight. A pod of (apparent) DOLPHINS came in from offshore and came through the waters between the Cape and Tatoosh I. Also, gulls were feeding on a dead HUMBOLDT SQUID right on the beach in town.



Also--there was virtually no migrant passerine flight along the road leaving town adjacent to the Wa'atch River, and I missed the Great Egret that had been seen at least twice this month (Tweeters reports) along the river here. Last year in the forest right where the road begins to leave town I had a Blue Jay with other migrants, and heard that Ryan Merrill and Charlie Wright had a knockout day near here back on Sept. 9. Savannah Sparrows were about the only migrant passerine on the move in numbers, with 75 or so present; I picked out a very buffy-faced individual and also a very clean-white one with no visible yellow in the lores or elsewhere on the head. The other bird of interest here was a female SURF SCOTER on the Wa'atch River, this I thought an odd site.


Scott Atkinson

Lake Stevens

mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com

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