A few weeks ago, I took a boat trip out to Alden Bank near the San Juans and the dominate bird out there was by far the Ancients. From one viewpoint I counted close to 200. My best guess is that there were easily twice that as they continued for a couple of miles. They were often in groups of 5-20. They would form a rough line then all dive near the same time. After disappearing, they would pop up. The weather was cold, dark (nearing sundown), light rain but the water was flat for viewing. Heading back to Birch Bay I could not take a straight line for a mile or so and had to slow down when they would suddenly pop up near the boat.

Then again, I went out on the 21st with 3 others and we came upon similar numbers but not grouped in as tight an area. Dozens and dozens were seen flying near & far.

We did get numerous viewings to their running / belly bouncing off wave crests while attempting to get fully airborne. A poor shot of this was captured which I put on my Flickr page.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ericellingson/

Eric Ellingson

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