Hi Tweets,



On Saturday, August 17, we had another great day birding offshore with Westport Seabirds. We left the marina at 6:00 am and headed due west along our usual route to Grays Canyon. Moderate numbers of Sooty Shearwaters and Common Murres, including a few recently fledged chick/adult pairs were seen on the inner shelf, along with scattered, small flocks of mostly Red-necked and a few Red Phalaropes. Our only Tufted Puffin for the day was unfortunately a quick flyby. Motoring west was bumpy due to residual swells from a few days of strong NW winds, but light winds kept the spray to a minimum and viewing conditions were good all day under cloudy skies.



On the outer shelf, we picked our first Black-footed Albatrosses, Northern Fulmars, Pink-footed Shearwaters, and a low flying Buller's Shearwater. We would only see one more Buller's for the day, but their numbers should increase off Westport from now to October. We caught up with a shrimper close to the shelf edge with about 25 Albatross sitting in its wake, one being distinctly white-bodied, and the Laysan Albatross calls went out. This bird was cooperative and provided great photo ops as it repeatedly flew short distances and landed around our boat and the shrimper. At this stop, we also added Sabine's Gulls, our first Fort-tailed Storm-Petrels, Short-tailed Shearwaters, and two of what would be six South Polar Skuas for the day. We left the shrimper and continued west to deeper water picking up both Rhinoceros and Cassin's Auklets, fly-by Artic Terns, a single Common Tern, and close encounters with a couple of Long-tailed Jaegers. A bit further, spotter Bill Shelmerdine called out "murrelets", and we all got on two Scripp's Murrelets close to the boat riding the swells. Fortuitously, this pair stayed close by on the water for some time allowing everyone great looks at this species, a lifer for many on board!



Once in deep water, bird numbers dropped off, but we picked up most of our Fork-tails for the day over the canyon as well as our only Leach's Storm-petrel, it is getting late in the year for this species. Interestingly, we found a natural slick in deep water with a nice collection of birds, including two more Long-tailed and three Parasitic Jaegers, allowing nice comparisons between these two, often confusing species. At our chum stop, we picked up more albatross, fulmar, and sooty and pink-footed shearwaters. Several more Short-tailed Shearwaters appeared and landed and flew repeatedly around the boat. This allowed trip leader Scott Mills to provide great details on how to tell Short-tails from the very similar Sooty Shearwaters. After about 45 minutes at the chum spot, we turned east towards Westport with the following seas making for a relatively smooth ride. We did not add any new offshore bird species on the way in, but we did get better looks at both Phalarope species and Cassin's Auklets, and found three more Common Terns resting on a log.


Our rarest species for the day was likely a mammal, Guadalupe Fur Seals. We often see Northern Fur Seals on Westport trips, which breed on islands in the Bering Sea and a few islands off CA. Although we did not realize it at the time, we saw our first Guadalupe Fur Seal on our July 13, 2019 trip. Local birder, Mason Maron, was on his first pelagic trip that day and took photos of a fur seal that we identified as a Northern. Fortunately, Mason submitted those photos to an on-line site and a fur seal expert from CA identified the animal as a Guadalupe Fur Seal, not a Northern. Since that trip, we have been schooling ourselves (actually Scott Mills has been schooling us) on field identification of Northern versus Guadalupe Fur Seals. There are subtle differences in head shape, flipper fur pattern, and rear flipper length, that if seen well are diagnostic, even in the juvenile and female fur seals that we typically see off the WA coast. These subtle field marks can be difficult to see on the open seas, but we believe that two of the four fur seals we encountered last Saturday were also Guadalupes. This is remarkable because Guadalupe Fur Seals currently are known to breed mostly on islands off Mexico (mostly Guadalupe Island), but a few have bred on islands off CA. Virtually all books and websites list the northern extent of their range as central CA. Guadalupe Fur Seals were heavily hunted and believed to be extinct in the early 1900s. But the population has rebounded and was estimated to about 10,000 by the late 1990s. Other marine mammals observed during the day included five Humpback Whales, small numbers of Dall's Porpoise and Pacific White-sided Dolphins, and both Steller's and California Sea Lions.

Back in the harbor, we added a number of shorebird species on the jetty as well as in the marina. This included a single Wandering Tattler, about 20 Black and two Ruddy Turnstone, and 15 Surfbirds. The annual flock of Marbled Godwits that roost in the marina at high tide now numbers about 500. We ended up with about 7000 total birds for the day. The final numbers and species list is posted on Westport Seabirds.com and the trip lists are on ebird, with photos included. Spotters for the trip were Scott Mills, Bill Shelmerdine, and Gene Revelas. If you are interested in joining us, please check the Westport Seabirds website for information on upcoming trips and availability. http://westportseabirds.com/. Our 2019 season runs through the first weekend in October.


Hope to see you on the boat sometime.
Gene Revelas
Olympia, WA

Gene Revelas | Senior Consultant
Tel: 360.705.3534,418 | Cell: 360.870.4950
1205 West Bay Drive NW | Olympia | WA 98502
grevelas at integral-corp.com | www.integral-corp.com

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