Hey tweeters, I got back tuesday from my annual washington coast fishing
trip longlining for sablefish. We fished from april 29 thru may 7th this
year a little later than the past couple years. We started setting gear
the 29th in juan de fuca canyon approx 30 miles offshore. It took a little
while for the birds to gather to the squid we bait our hooks with but as we
hauled our gear and began dressing sablefish I was able to observe.....
Back-footed albatross-250+
Laysan albatross-1
sooty shearwater -18
pink footed shearwater- 1
sabine's gull- 1
western gull
california gulls
thayer's gull
fork-tailed storm petrel- 12
With unfavorable weather in the forecast we headed to westport . It was
daylight as we approached the first northern green can. We passed many
common murre's , rhino auklets, 4 cassin's auklets, common loons, pacific
loons,and near the green can a large flock of sooty shearwaters was
whirling, among the flock was one shearwater with quite white undersides.
I saw it only briefly but it seemed to fly differently than the other
shearwaters the boat was rolling pretty good and I was not able to
relocate the bird.On into westport past brown pelicans, pelagic and double
crested cormorants and a beautiful horned grebe at the harbor entrance. We
left westport on the eve of the 1st of may heading out towards willapa
canyon to continue our trip, the lighting was bad on the way out .We fished
willapa canyon for five days. the fishing was spotty, we had one good day
when we were consistently dressing fish throwing over sablefish heads and
guts and great number of birds gathered around the boat. It was a bird
crazy day , sunny, brisk wind and birds whirling everywhere around the
boat. A black-footed albatross banked off the side of the top house ,
flopping back into the water with a loud ruckus.So many birds.willapa
canyon sightings.
black-footed albatross 500+
sabine's gull 50
sooty shearwater 30
pink-footed shearwater-18n
red necked phalarope-many large flocks
forked tailed storm petrel 40+
laysan albatross 1 not sure if it was the same bird possibly this 2nd
sighting 4 days later and approx 90 miles south
SHORT-TAILED ALBATROSS-1 juvenile it showed upon the evening of may 4th of
may
california gulls 100+ many combos of plumages
western gull -many
thayer's gull 12 +dark juveniles ,many adults,
one very white smaller gull- white through the primaries, dark bill, pink
legs. This gull was unique in color being so light and seemed a bit smaller
than a california gull when swimming side by side.
one small auklet i notiiced because of its white rump very visible at 30
yards.The bird flew and was very white on the belly with a dark head and
neck, i believe this was a parakeet auklet .
pomarine jaeger 3
parasitic jaeger 1
common tern 4
mallard 1 fly by
I was able to photograph some of the birds with my cell phone as fishing is
slow. Unfortunately i was unable to get the auklet but would be interested
in feed back on the light gull. My hunch is that it is a very light
juvenile thayer's gull.
It is interesting we have seen juvenile short-tailed albatross 3 years in a
row mid april trough early may.
I did not see any northern fulmar around the boat this year that is a
first.
I have set up a flickr site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/swamproad/
Good birding
Ken Lane
Acme, Wa
ken.lane63 at gmail.com
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