I was at Neah Bay from Oct. 28-30 and had a couple of good sightings, but they didn't come easily. On the sixth trip to the quarry behind the Waste Water Treatment Plant, after six plus hours, the Rock Wren finally appeared and foraged slightly to the east of the terraced quarry site right at the base of the hillside among concrete slabs and such. I was beginning to wonder if the plant manager was starting to keep an eye on me for lurking about the site! Also, at Hobuck Beach, I made the trek to the Wa'atch River mouth three times to find the adult Iceland Gull seen by Merrill and others. The evening of the 28th, there were several people on the beach spooking and dispersing the gulls, the morning of the 29th only 75-100 gulls were present, almost all California, but the evening of the 29th I poured through about a thousand gulls over and over as they kept coming in and leaving, finding a kittiwake, but no Iceland. After an hour and a half, I was starting to see gulls dancing where there were none so I left to bird another area. Fortunately, I met Fanter Lane and his dad at Hobuck and they reported finding a juv. Iceland Gull at Neah Bay and we exchanged phone #. The next morning, they called to say the juvie was back at that site and I buzzed over and they nicely pointed it out without me having to do the gull filter at all! The gull was smaller than Glaucous-winged nearby, had white wing-tips, was very light overall, and had that nice filigreed color pattern of the species. Photos submitted.

Bruce Paige
Sequim

spruceak at yahoo.com
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