Dear Tweeters,
Maybe fireworks might have something to do with the movement of American White Pelicans from Padilla Bay to Whidbey Island. This is only a hunch, but I noticed a large number of spent rocket tubes on the shoreline of Padilla Bay, on a visit there a few days after the Fourth of July. It seems most likely that these fireworks had been shot off toward the bay, rather than inland or toward the refinery. The dredge-spoil islands are right in the direction where they would have been fired. I could find no pelicans, although they had been reported there as recently as the first of July. 
Fireworks are sold right nearby. Since large-caliber fireworks had been shot off about three hundred meters from the dredge-spoils, perhaps the birds were scared off?
One might also wonder what effect the fireworks would have on the heronry nearby.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
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