Yesterday's pelagic trip was truly one for the records books, with calm
seas, good viewing, and hitting some all-time record high numbers. Some our
trips have good species diversity but not always good views, others have
good views but not as much diversity, while yesterday had an amazing
diversity as well as excellent views of the birds and mammals.

Instead of heading due west to the shelf edge at Grays Canyon we headed
southwest to Willapa Canyon in Pacific county, to meet up with a fleet of
boats fishing for Pacific Whiting. By 7:15 we were in Pacific county and
had a Manx Shearwater.

We spent four hours around the fishing boats, which helped provide the
record setting numbers of tubenoses:

1730 Black-footed Albatross. The previous high count on any trip since 1990
was 993, with 359 being the record in May.

1973 Pink-footed Shearwater. The previous high for a May trip was 280.

Other numbers and comments:

1 Laysan Albatross -; we've had Laysan on four out of the five trips this
year

16,152 Sooty Shearwater

171 Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel

150 Red-necked Phalarope

10 Red Phalarope -; always a treat to see these and Red-necked in breeding
plumage

2 South Polar Skua, the first time we've had two on a May trip.

8 Parasitic Jaegers, including a dark morph

3 Pomarine Jaegers, including a dark morph

1 Long-tailed Jaeger -; the hardest one to get, it made a grand slam of all
four species

5 Cassin's Auklet

8 Common Tern

6 Arctic Tern

2765 Sabine's Gull -; we hit migration just right! Big flocks, and it was
the first time I've ever heard them calling. The previous high for any trip
since 1990 was 2421, with 1902 being the record in May.



There was also a small songbird fallout, with Wilson's Warbler,
Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Pine Siskin, Ruby-crowned
Kinglet, a kinglet sp. and a flycatcher sp.



Early on we encountered Humpback Whales which were quite active feeding,
surface rolling, and several individuals breached. In addition to the
whales, we had Harbor and Dall's Porpoise, Pacific White-sided Dolphin,
with California and Steller's Sea Lion, and Harbor Seal in the harbor.
Another treat was to see a Salmon Shark, which was new for me.



Complete numbers are posted on the Westport Seabirds website, where you can
find information about upcoming trips: www.westportseabirds.com
Thanks to skipper Phil Anderson for knowing where to find the birds, and to
Chris Anderson, Scott Mills, and Bill Shelmerdine for making it an
outstanding trip.

Mike Donahue
Seattle
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