Hi Tweets -

Westport Seabirds enjoyed another fun pelagic birding trip offshore on Sunday, September 23rd. The Saturday trip was cancelled due to high seas, so we were happy things had calmed down by early Sunday and we enjoyed party sunny skies all day and a relatively smooth ride. For the second weekend in a row, the offshore fishing fleets were too far south or north of Grays Canyon to intersect. So we ran our usual route due west about 40 miles and came about some nice, natural collections of birds in deep water, one included 2 Laysan Albatross sitting on the water, and another featured about 600 Sabine's Gulls putting on quite a show, swirling about and landing as a group. The full trip list, including mammals, from the marina and back is provided below. Other noteworthy items were more Buller's than Pink-footed Shearwaters for the day, multiple South Polar Skuas, Pomarine, and Parasitic Jaeger sightings, nice comparative looks at both Red and Red-necked Phalaropes, and an America Coot outside the harbor!

We ended up with about 5,300 birds for the day. The species lists, including photos of some of the birds, are posted on ebird.org. As always, Captain Phil Anderson and first mate Chris Anderson made sure the trip ran smoothly. Spotters for the trip were Scott Mills, Bruce Labar, and Gene Revelas. Sadly, there are only three trips remaining for 2018, but the September 30th, and especially the October 6th final trip of the year, still have spaces available. Please check http://westportseabirds.com/ for details.

Westport Seabirds Trip List - September 23, 2018

Surf Scoter 140
White-winged Scoter 2
Pacific Loon 8
Common Loon 5
Western Grebe 24
Laysan Albatross 2
Black-footed Albatross 19
N. Fulmar 7
Pink-footed Shearwater 36
Buller's Shearwater 52
Sooty Shearwater 530
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 58
Brandt's Cormorant 157
Double-cr. Cormorant 16
Pelagic Cormorant 68
Brown Pelican 422
American Coot 1
Wandering Tattler 1
Marbled Godwit 850
Black Turnstone 1
Red-necked Phalarope 21
Red Phalarope 22

South Polar Skua 3
Pomarine Jaeger 3
Parasitic Jaeger 4
Common Murre 198
Cassin's Auklet 189
Rhinoceros Auklet 37
Sabine's Gull 629
Bonaparte's Gull 2
Heerman's Gull 266
California Gull 574
Herring Gull 3
Glaucous-wing/Western Gull 573

Humpback Whale 6
Harbor Porpoise 5
Dall's Porpoise 6
Harbor Seal 15
Northern Fur Seal 7
California Sea-Lion 16
Northern (Steller's) Sea-Lion 5

Happy Birding!
Gene Revelas
Olympia, WA

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