Subject: [Tweeters] Sooty Shearwaters at Ocean Shores-28, 29 July
Date: Aug 1 19:51:54 2012
From: Andy Stepniewski - steppie at nwinfo.net


Tweeters,

Ellen and I stood in awe at dusk last Saturday evening at the base of the
jetty at Ocean Shores where the waters around the jetty and stretching north
perhaps a mile were black with Sooty Shearwaters and many hundreds of gulls,
mostly Heermann's and Californias. These birds were in a feeding frenzy the
likes of which we've never seen before in Washington. Thousands of
shearwaters were prancing low over the surface, their bodies half out of
water as they pattered their feet, half flying, half swimming. Much of this
action was taking place just a few yards off the beach, while farther
offshore to the tip of the jetty, uncounted thousands more shearwaters swam
and foraged. Gulls swarmed about the sand at the water's edge. The spectacle
reminded me of a memorable photo of a similar concentration of shearwaters
in an excellent book on seabirds of our region (Haley, D.1984. "Seabirds of
Eastern North Pacific and Arctic Waters." Pacific Search). The photo on page
43 is accompanied by an understated caption "A gathering of seabirds-each
year shearwaters from 'down under' travel by the hundreds of thousands to
feed in the North Pacific. Here they congregate at Unimak Pass between the
Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea."

If you can't journey to the Bering Sea to see this phenomenon, it's
happening right now at the Washington coast. Evening just before and after
sunset seems best from what we've gathered. This would seem to indicate the
daily ebb and flow of upwelling (prompted by the thermal low created east in
the interior) initiates a pronounced onshore breeze. This upwelling might
bring the food source these birds are feasting on closer to the waters
surface. Just speculation on this; I'd appreciate other thoughts on the
reason behind the early evening timing of this event.

On Sunday morning there were only scattered shearwaters in the area, mostly
beyond the jetty end.

Andy and Ellen Stepniewski
Wapato WA
steppie at nwinfo.net