Dear Tweeters,
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?Thanks to the Whatcom folks who organized a wonderful boating trip today (10-27-2012) aboard the Island Caper out of Bellingham. Despite, or perhaps because of, some dreadful weather, we saw a ton of birds.
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The major highlight was a BLACK-HEADED GULL!
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Paul Woodcock, Victor Burgett and I had good looks at this bird as it flew right by the boat.? The size of a?Mew Gull, it was obviously larger than the Bonaparte's Gulls in the area. It had more or less the same pattern on the upperwing, but a much different underwing pattern, with a large area of blackish on all but the outermost couple of primaries.
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Other birds included:
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Three species of loons;
Western Grebe, a few;
R-N Grebe, a very few;
Horned Grebe, only a very few, viewed by only a couple of people;
three cormorant species;
GB Herons;
Canada Geese;
four species of Anas ducks;
a few birders saw a Lesser Scaup off the dredge spoil islands (off Whitmarsh);
Surf Scoters; a few birders saw a few White-winged Scoters;
Harlequin Ducks, a few here and there;
Oldsquaw, lots of them in a few flocks;
three merganser species;
seven species of raptors, plus a Cooper's Hawk that buzzed me in the harbor at dawn;
SURFBIRDS and BLACK TURNSTONES?on rocks in both Skagit and Whatcom Counties;
At least EIGHTY-THREE BLACK OYSTERCATCHERS on the breakwater south of LaConner;
6 Greater Yellowlegs in Swinomish Channel;
Gulls: Glaucous-winged, Ring-billed, California, Bonaparte's, and Heermann's;
?THREE LATE CASPIAN TERNS in LaConner area of Swinomish Channel;
TWO ANCIENT MURRELETS at Williamson's Rocks (two others seen off Guemes I);
Lots of Common Murres, Marbled Murrelets, and Pigeon Guillemots, and a very few Rhinos;
Mourning Doves and Rock Pigeons;
Close to twenty Belted Kingfishers;
a handful of landbirds as well.
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We also saw quite a few harbor porpoises, river otters, and harbor seals; a lucky few saw a sea lion
?and some Dalle's Porpoises.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

Gary Bletsch

Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA

garybletsch at yahoo.com

"Nun," sagte ich, "wenn ich ein Taugenichts bin, so ist's gut, so will ich in die Welt gehen, und mein Glueck machen." Und eigentlich war mir das recht lieb, denn es war mir kurz vorher selber eingefallen, auf Reisen zu gehen, da ich die Goldammer, welche im Herbst und Winter immer betruebt an unserm Fenster sang: "Bauer, miet' mich, Bauer, miet' mich!" nun in der schoenen Fruehlingszeit wieder ganz stolz und lustig vom Baume rufen hoerte: "Bauer, behalt' deinen Dienst!"