A boat full of birders, primarily a group from Mass Audubon, headed west
out of Westport yesterday with very calm seas. The seas were so calm we
didn?t have to stay on the back of the boat while crossing the bar.

Flat seas are excellent for finding alcids, and the trip total of 503
Cassin?s Auklets set a record high count for this time of year. We had
great looks, and not all of them were of the birds flying away!

We had the usual suspects: Black-footed Albatross, Sabine?s Gulls, and
Pink-footed and Sooty Shearwaters. Shearwaters numbers were low, maybe
because they were all in Neah Bay! (See Bob Boekelheide?s excellent report
from the Neah Bay trip yesterday.)

The jaeger show consisted of two Long-tailed and two Parasitic s, the
former being the most difficult to get out there.

The mammal show was good, with a grand slam of the Washington pinnipeds:
Harbor Seal, California Sea Lion, and Steller?s Sea Lion (all inshore) and
Northern Fur Seal and Northern Elephant Seal in offshore waters. One of the
fur seals was a sub-adult male. We typically see juveniles, so seeing this
sub-adult was a treat (and a first for me). A Humpback Whale off the end
the jetty rounded out the mammal list.

I posted a short video of the fur seal on the Westport Seabirds website, as
well as some photos from an earlier trip this summer.
westportseabirds.com has a more complete list off all the birds and total
numbers, as well as information on the remaining 2016 trips.

Mike Donahue
Seattle
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