My wife, daughter and I were on the Ocean Shores beaches Saturday afternoon
to after sunset. I first noticed this continuous stream of birds around
5:30pm from the Jetty. They were all flying SOUTH. After about 1 hour we
moved up the beach to the Tonquin Rd access area. The stream continued at
the same pace. I tried to come up with an estimate of birds. I figured in my
field of view of the binoculars I could see 150-200 birds at a time. I found
about 6 fields of view worth or birds went by in 20 seconds. So my estimate
was that about 3,000 birds were flying by per minute.



Since it was late afternoon the birds were all backlit so it was hard to
make out much details besides their outline. On a few photos I could make
out some of the light coloring that would be consistent with the Sooty
Shearwaters. But there also seemed to be a bunch of outlines that were Gull
and Murre shaped.



This steam continued heavy through almost 8pm. Gradually, the stream of
birds seemed to die down. Then a little later right near sunset the stream
of birds picked back up again but this time they were all flying NORTH.



Certainly very interesting to see.



Then, Sunday morning were found a Common Term on the beach a mile South of
the Tonquin rd access. It was a life bird for us.



Doug Schurman

Seattle



From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Greg Pluth
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2012 10:56 AM
To: tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] Stream of birds



Hi Tweets -



On this past Sunday, Aug. 5, I birded and photographed my way from Ocean
Shores up to Copalis Beach. I was getting pics of some fishermen
withstanding the elements out on the jetty, but not until I climbed up onto
the rocks around 3:30 to scan for birds did I notice the endless stream
flying fast northward. A conservative guess would be an average of 20 birds
per second. Once I was aware of this "stream," every time I checked I could
see no change. As far as the eye could see (with my 10x Zeiss binos), the
stream was endless from south to north. I made numerous stops on my way to
Copalis and witnessed the stream at the same constant and endless rate until
around 8:20 when it was getting too dark and I headed back home. This
suggests that millions might not be hyperbole. The steam stayed consistently
several hundred yards out beyond the breakers and if anyone else was birding
that day, they would appreciate how dense the cloud cover was, making it
difficult to see any markings on the birds, save that they were dark. They
all would use several quick wingbeats, then a two or three second glide.

The question is, did anyone else witness this, or can anyone help ID the
species? My best guess is a shearwater (sooty?). And why were they headed
north?

Thanks for your help.

Greg Pluth, Tacoma