I've seen a similar to-the-horizon mass of Short-tailed Shearwaters from St. Paul Is. in the Bering Sea, in a calm day during their southward migration in late summer.

Bob Sundstrom

Sent from my iPhone


> On Sep 11, 2020, at 8:57 AM, byers345 <byers345 at comcast.net> wrote:

>

> 

> Hello Tweeters,

> We've been at the ocean 3 days now. Everyday, when we could see the ocean, we have noted the steady stream of Sooty Shearwaters heading south. Yesterday afternoon we were at the Cape Disappointment SP North Jetty. At one point it is easy to get up on the jetty and look at the Columbia River, which enters the Pacific Ocean there. I think our jaws literally dropped as we came to the top and looked at the river/ocean. The water in front of us was carpeted with many thousands of Sooty Shearwaters. They bobbed on the water forming a wide ribbon from near the shore all the way out into the ocean as far as we could see (it was smokey and foggy so we couldn't see that far). Every so often a few hundred would take flight and come close to us.

> We had never seen this phenomenon before, but I wondered if it was a common occurrence with the ahearwaters heading south this time of year.

> Happy birding, Charlotte Byers, Edmonds

>

>

>

> Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

>

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