I birded the north section of the Vashon CBC that included Southworth around to Yukon Harbor. After striking out on owling, we arrived at dawn at the Southworth Ferry Terminal and were astounded to see the southward movement of rhinos and murres in the passage between Vashon and Southworth. They streamed by in singles and groups up to 20 in about a 3 rhino:1 murre ratio at a rate of a group every few minutes. We had to move on after 30 mins but the flight appeared to have slowed down. After the morning flights there were rafts of these alcids between Kitsap and Blake Island as we made our way up around Yukon Harbor. We ended up tallying 369 rhinos and 97 murres for our portion of the circle. In other years there was usually less than 10 total and last year only two murres. High tide was at 9:47 am. In general rhinos have been extremely common on the south end Vashon commute with usually 5-40 seen on the morning crossings.
Other highlights were 12 Black Scoters (only 1 female), black turnstones on the Harper Pier, and a Peregrine nailing a sanderling out of a flock at South Colby then flying directly over us.
Others on the team were Larry Jensen, Andrew Jensen, Fran O'Reilly, & Peter Wimberger

Gary Shugart, Slater Museum of Natural History, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA & Vashon Island