Hey Tweets,

I did some backpacking this last weekend along the Olympic coast,
between Cape Alava and Point of Arches, the weather was stunningly
clear, and the birding was fantastic. There were roosting Great Blue
Heron's behind our camp, and up to 5 would be visible on the rocks at
low tide. 4 Black Oystercatchers and several pairs of Harlequin Ducks
gave us views from about 25 ft away, and I am always blown away by
Harlequin Duck plumage. Hundreds of Western/Western-Glaucous-winged
gulls were moving up and down the coast throughout the day, and
cormorants were visible at a distance. We also could hear barking Sea
Lions out on the Bodelteh Islands, but without a scope they were
nearly impossible to see.

On Sunday, as we hiked north along the coast and crossed the overland
trail on first tidally-restricted headlands, I noticed some
concentrated bird activity out on the water. A raucous group of gulls
were concentrated around what I assume was a bait ball of fish
several hundred yards offshore, and there was a larger, darker bird
swimming around with them. I had a little trouble telling what the
bird was at first, but it then swam into the middle of the group, put
its head underwater, brought its head up, and quickly swam away from
the gulls, which hassled it trying to get at the fish it had caught.
The bird then threw back its head, and I saw from the neck pouch that
it was clearly a pelican. This bird was quite dark, with no obvious
white on the body, and so my first thought was Brown Pelican. As I
understand it, Brown Pelican's do not normally occur in this area.....

Does anyone have any thoughts on ID? I don't have any pictures, since
it was so far away and I only had binoculars, but as I said, the bird
was dark and I'm positive it was a pelican. It was certainly fun to
watch!

-Nathaniel Peters
ncpeters at uw.edu