Subject: [Tweeters] Help ID-ing alcid in SanJuans
Date: Jul 30 22:57:29 2010
From: Beach Dee - beachdee at hotmail.com
On 7/28/10 I was walking along South Beach in the American Camp park on San Juan Island in the San Juan Islands (sort of like visiting Hawaii in Hawaii...). I observed (both naked eye and small binoculars) a single alcid not too far off the shore, and the conditions were relatively calm, but the lighting was a bit difficult and the little rascal did not spend much time on the surface. The bird was dusky dark, but I could just make out a white streak on the side of the face. There was a very definite "something" sticking up at the base of the beak, visible each time it surfaced, but because of the lighting, impossible to make out if it had any sort of color (same with the beak itself -- mostly silhouetted although at one point I thought I caught a glimpse of reddish/orangish). I have not had much experience with alcids, and would greatly appreciate any information/opinions that anybody wants to weigh in with on what I might have seen. I did spend some time with a couple of my bird books, but it seems like none of them exactly matched what I saw. I have to say that, in just thumbing through Sibley's, his picture of a juvenile or Adult nonbreeding Crested Auklet is the closest to match to what I saw. But nothing about the descriptive info matches.
By the way, we saw Orcas for hours on Monday, Tues, and Wed in Haro Strait, just south of False Harbor (from the bluff property where we stayed) -- really great. And although we were not actively birding (well, I'm ALWAYS birding, even when I'm not supposed to, but this was not specifically a birding trip...) we saw among others, Goldfinch, Rufous Hummer, Wilson's Warbler (all right next to our cabin) and in the assortment of gulls on the beach, several Heerman's with dappled heads. A bit disappointed not to have seen any shorebirds. Very enjoyable, however, were the great views from the ferry at the Anacortes ferry dock, of the Pelagic Cormorant nests on the dolphins of the dock. Clearly visible eggs and youngsters.
Dee Warnock
Edmonds, WA
Beachdee at hotmail.com