Hey Tweets,

I also visited the Dash Point Pier this morning for about an hour. I usually make my way to a few spots on the water when I head out to this part of the sound (Redondo, Dumas Bay, Brown's Point, Marine View Drive log booms), but decided I was just going to stay in one spot and see if the birds moved around me instead! From the pier, the large flock of Bonaparte's Gulls were to the east in the morning (I had to check this on a map to convince myself that this beach runs east-west!) so they were pretty badly backlit. The east end of the pier was full of people fishing as well, so I posted up on the west end and watched.

Mostly nothing for a bit, but eventually nearly all of the birds people have mentioned seeing there made a visit, including Bonaparte's and Glaucous-winged Gulls, Rhino Auklets and Surf Scoters, and two life birds for me - Common Terns and Parasitic Jaegers. These were my first jaegers of any kind, and the first time in a while that I'd seen a new *kind* of bird, so I'm still kind of floored. Three of them passed during the hour, and they were just beautiful - from the brown and yellow coloring, to the tail feathers streaming behind, and their flight - Still not sure how to describe the flight, but it just hits you as Not a Gull Flying By.

It was nice to finally run into the Terns as well... seems like I'm often right where they were yesterday, but never where they are right now. Embarassed to say it, but the jaegers were so cool, that it hardly registered that the terns were also new birds for me!

It's so rare that I get out of the state to bird, and have done absolutely none out of the country, but I got a little taste of I-haven't-seen-anything-like-that thirty minutes from home today!

-Tim Brennan
Renton