Tweeters,
Tina and I did a repositioning cruise on the Grand Princess from Los Angeles to Vancouver the 19th-22nd. The north bound itinerary put us in Washington waters from 2:00pm until the light gave out in Clallam county. There were two groups of birders from California and one from Portland on the ship for a total of 34 birders. With that many scopes and binos, we spotted some good birds.

In California waters we had:
Brown BoobyCook's Petrel Murphy's Petrel Hawaiian Petrel.
We picked up more Murphy's Petrels in Oregon.

We didn't find anything rare in Washington; but, did find some difficult county birds:
Pacific CountyLaysan AlbatrossPomarine JaegerTufted PuffinSabine's GullGray's Harbor CountyLaysan AlbatrossJefferson CountyLaysan AlbatrossBlack-footed AlbatrossPomarine JaegerSabine's GullFork-Tailed Storm-Petrel
As we sailed north yesterday, Paul Lehman said that we were redrawing the distribution map for Sabine's Gull in March. We found them all the way up to Jefferson County.

Tina and I called it quits shortly after getting into Clallam County. The light was getting difficult, the cold had seeped through our layers of clothing, we had been standing at the rail for nearly 11 hours, and it was time for cocktails and a nice dinner...

Good Birding,

Rick

Rick Taylor
Everett, WA