was at Kalaloch along the WA coast the past two days.......on 11 August, at ~1600hrs., I first noticed a steady stream of shearwaters (most likely Sooty shearwaters????) flying northwards along the coast. This continued for about the next hour. I estimated that I was counting about 100 birds every 10 seconds...which would mean ~600 birds every minute which would mean ~36,000 birds for one hour. Now I do not know when this movement began that afternoon, so this was definitely a minimum estimate. Also, since I was only using my 10X Leicas, I could not ID the birds other than knowing they were shearwaters

By any chance, anyone else out there in Tweeterland observed this movement? It was amazing in sheer numbers. Maybe they should be called sheerwaters!




Eric Kowalczyk
Seattle