Hi Tweets,

On August 10, 2013 George Gerdts led a boat trip out of Port Townsend to
the Protection Island. It is 7 miles out from the port. Glacier Spirit is a
diesel-powered yacht.

The weather was good and the sea was not too rough. About 50 birders were
on board. We did not see a lot of varieties but a lot of quantities of each
species. The target species of most passengers want is the Tufted Puffin.
Jamie Acker located one floating for us all. Another interesting thing we
saw was that many Rhinoceros Auklets fishing while carrying lots of fish in
their mouth. They have hooks on their tongue to do this.

Some 6000 pairs of Glaucous-winged Gulls, 22,000 pairs of Rhinoceros
Auklets, thousands of Pigeon Guillemots, Double-crested and Pelagic
Cormorants, and a few pairs of Black Oystercatchers nest on the island.
About 30 Tufted Puffins nest on the island also. It has some sandy beaches
that the Harbor Seal use as a haul-out place. We saw hundreds.

Photo link is

http://flickr.com/gp/qinglinma/vRgZ95/

Qinglin Ma
Kirkland, WA
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