Greetings all,

Yesterday we had a fantastic day offshore with excellent weather and mild sea conditions which made for excellent viewing of seabirds offshore.? The highlight of the day was a Horned Puffin sitting on the water as we were on our return trip back to Westport.? It was a bit wary of our boat but sat for a while allowing everyone on board to get nice views.? We had an excellent chum 40 miles offshore where we went from absolutely zero birds when we stopped the boat to a nice gathering of Fork-tailed and Leach's Storm-Petrel patrolling our cod liver and suet chum slick. Northern Fulmar and Black-footed Albatross braved getting close to the boat for herring that Skipper Phil threw out which gave the photographers on board excellent photo opportunities.? We ended the day with a "Skua Slam" seeing a few South Polar Skua (1 very well), several Pomarine Jaegers with full spoon-shaped tails, a couple of Parasitic Jaegers and a Long-tailed Jaeger than was seen by a few on the front of the boat.?

Some of the photographs can be seen on my flickr site currently

www.flickr.com/photos/shyalbatross

and will be up on westportseabirds.com along with all the trip totals.

Also, Westport Seabirds is now on Facebook, so feel free to "like" us there.

www.facebook.com/westportseabirds

Here are the totals - Spotters for this trip were Bill Shelmerdine, Michael Donahue, and myself.

There is another trip today, which I look forward to hearing about!

For Westport Seabirds,

Ryan Shaw
Tacoma, WA
rtshaw80 at hotmail.com

SPECIES/TOTALS

Brant (Black) 1 1st transect after passing the jetty
Mallard 6 40 miles out - at chum spot
White-winged Scoter 1
Black-footed Albatross 184 Lower numbers than two weeks ago - many shrimp/fishing boats out today - more dispersed?
Northern Fulmar 466
Pink-footed Shearwater 16 Very low numbers for the time of year
Sooty Shearwater 11758
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 459
Leach's Storm-Petrel 35
Brandt's Cormorant 2
Pelagic Cormorant 1
Red-necked Phalarope 4
Red Phalarope 5
phalarope sp. 7
Heermann's Gull 10
Western,Glaucous-winged, and hybrid Gulls 426
California Gull 168
South Polar Skua 2
Pomarine Jaeger 6 All adults
Parasitic Jaeger 2
Long-tailed Jaeger 1
jaeger sp. 2 Seen at a distance together, along with a SP Skua - one looked like a subadult Pomarine but too far to be sure.
Common Murre 93
Cassin's Auklet 24
Rhinoceros Auklet 48
Horned Puffin 1

Humpback Whale - 2
Pacific White-sided Dolpin - 2
Northern Fur-Seal - 2
Ocean Sunfish - 3
Blue Shark - 3