Thanks to Dennis Paulson for his report on last Saturday's birding on Whitbey Island.

My wife and I spent the day on Whitbey Island on Saturday, and were surprised not to see many seabirds and waterfowl; I thought it was just our bad luck or poor birding abilities that resulted in our low count of 34 species for the day. Dennis's note was comforting. My wife and I hit just about all of the recommended birding sites on the island, and though we enjoyed the brilliant fall weather, we were a bit disappointed not to see more alcids, though we did see some Pigeon Guillemots in their winter colors. We did turn up Common and Red-throated Loons changing into their winter outfits, Pelagic Cormorants, Western, Horned and Pied-billed Grebes, Dowitchers, Surf Scoters and Black Scoters, and Northern Pintails, Mallards, American Wigeons, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shovelers, a Redhead, some Hooded Mergansers, a few Scaup and Canadian Geese. One lonely male Northern Harrier floated by us near Double-Bluffs, the only raptor for our trip. There were plenty of gulls, including Glaucous-winged, Heerman's, Mew and probably some California gulls.

I was particularly frustrated at Crockett Lake. It was hard enough to set up a scope by the side of the road with all the traffic that was streaming by on a sunny, warm afternoon, but the distance from the shorebirds to viewer made it hard for us to pull in anything satisfactory with my scope, let alone my binoculars.

We similarly lucked out at Bos Lake, but found better birding at Grasser's Lagoon and a satisfactory set of birds at Dugualla Bay and lake. Unfortunately, the late sunlight backlit the birds there, reminding us that fall is here.

Jim Owens