Subject: [Tweeters] Short-tailed Shearwaters off La Push
Date: Oct 6 15:27:12 2010
From: Richard Carlson - rccarl at yahoo.com


Did you charter a boat or what? Sounds like an interesting alternative to
Westport.

RCC

Richard Carlson
Full-time Birder, Biker and Rotarian
Part-time Economist
Tucson, AZ, Lake Tahoe, CA, & Kirkland, WA
rccarl at pacbell.net
Tucson 520-760-4935
Tahoe 530-581-0624
Kirkland 425-828-3819
Cell 650-280-2965




________________________________
From: Ryan Merrill <rjm284 at gmail.com>
To: Tweeters (E-mail) <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wed, October 6, 2010 2:11:16 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Short-tailed Shearwaters off La Push

Charlie Wright and I spent an enjoyable day watching Short-tailed
Shearwaters off La Push yesterday, with a total of 1440 seen! The two
other highest counts I'm aware of in Washington are 551 on 8/28/1982
and 3352 on 10/9/1977, both off Westport.

Pictures of a few of the shearwaters and one of a Tufted Puffin can be
seen on my Flickr site. There are also pictures of several
Sharp-tailed Sandpipers recently seen in the Skagit area.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rjm284

Totals from the day:

Surf Scoter - Melanitta perspicillata 200
White-winged Scoter - Melanitta fusca 30
Long-tailed Duck - Clangula hyemalis 2
Red-throated Loon - Gavia stellata 2
Pacific Loon - Gavia pacifica 30
Common Loon - Gavia immer 2
Black-footed Albatross - Phoebastria nigripes 20
Northern Fulmar - Fulmarus glacialis 380
Pink-footed Shearwater - Puffinus creatopus 45
Flesh-footed Shearwater - Puffinus carneipes 2 one was really
close for great views, both flying solo
Buller's Shearwater - Puffinus bulleri 24
Sooty Shearwater - Puffinus griseus 30 less than ten after first hour
Short-tailed Shearwater - Puffinus tenuirostris 1440 incl
flocks of 650 and 150, great to see so many! surprisingly easy to tell
apart from Sooty, nice to see range of variation, same bird can show
underwings that look largely bright white from one angle then quite
dusky from another, most of the light is spread around evenly on outer
half of underwing
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel - Oceanodroma furcata 6
Brown Pelican - Pelecanus occidentalis 150
Brandt's Cormorant - Phalacrocorax penicillatus 15
Pelagic Cormorant - Phalacrocorax pelagicus 1 one way out,
have coordinates to see how far
Heermann's Gull - Larus heermanni 150
Western Gull - Larus occidentalis 20
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) - Larus occidentalis x
glaucescens 200
California Gull - Larus californicus 400
Herring Gull - Larus argentatus 70 25 or so were standing on
logs, the only gull seen doing that today
Thayer's Gull - Larus thayeri 1 adult
Glaucous-winged Gull - Larus glaucescens 30
South Polar Skua - Stercorarius maccormicki 10 including one
chasing hybrid gull directly above us in the boat!
Pomarine Jaeger - Stercorarius pomarinus 5
Parasitic Jaeger - Stercorarius parasiticus 1 dark
Common Murre - Uria aalge 200
Pigeon Guillemot - Cepphus columba 1
Cassin's Auklet - Ptychoramphus aleuticus 180
Rhinoceros Auklet - Cerorhinca monocerata 50
Tufted Puffin - Fratercula cirrhata 5 great views, all on water

Also 1 Northern Fur Seal, 2 Cali Sea Lions, 3 Steller's Sea Lions, 3
Harbor Porpoises and 1 whale (probably Humpback)

Ryan Merrill
Kirkland
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