Greetings all -

We had a great trip off Westport yesterday with
great weather, and some great birds. Even though we ended our streak at
3 trips in a row with a Laysan Albatross, we still encountered a high
number of Black-footed Albatross with almost 600 seen for the day. A
July record. Also high counts for July were South Polar Skua where we
had 12 sightings throughout the day.

We had great numbers of
Sooty Shearwaters, encountering a mass raft of ~10,000 birds as we were
leaving the harbor. Other highlights include 5 Leach's Storm-Petrels at
our "chum spot," a Parastic Jaeger being chased by a South Polar Skua,
and a nice variety of mammals and other creatures, seeing a few small
pods of Pacific White-sided Dolphins, Dall's Porpoise, 6 Humpback
Whales, and several Blue Sharks.

We have limited space on several upcoming trips - Inquire at www.westportseabirds.com

Spotters on the boat were Bruce LaBar, Scott Mills and myself,

For Westport Seabirds,

Ryan Shaw


The numbers for the trip (all outside the harbor).

White-winged Scoter 4
Red-throated Loon 1
Pacific Loon 1
Black-footed Albatross 582
Northern Fulmar 214
Pink-footed Shearwater 285
Sooty Shearwater 16793
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 255
Leach's Storm-Petrel 5
Brandt's Cormorant 3
Pelagic Cormorant 16
Brown Pelican 82
Red-necked Phalarope 3
Red Phalarope 5
Heermann's Gull 55
Western/Glaucous-winged/hybrids 772
California Gull 48
South Polar Skua 12
Parasitic Jaeger 1
jaeger sp. 1
Common Murre 317
Cassin's Auklet 11
Rhinoceros Auklet 29
Tufted Puffin 3