Hi Tweets,
Last Saturday, October 2nd, Westport Seabirds enjoyed a wonderful fall pelagic trip. We were lucky to run into relatively calm and dry weather, but we had to move the trip from Sunday to Saturday to catch the best sea conditions between the weather systems moving through the region. The Monte Carlo, crewed by Captain Phil Anderson and mate Chris Anderson, with spotters Scott Mills, Bruce LaBar, and me (Gene Revelas) and 15 very enthusiastic birders from Florida, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Colorado, as well as Washington, left the dock at around 6:30 am. Our first memorable sighting was an incredibly vibrant sunrise over Grays Harbor with Mt. Rainier casting a triangular shadow across rippled, pink and orange clouds.
The complete list of birds and mammals observed for the day is provided below. Highlights included: concentrations of birds and great looks at most species at the shrimp boats working the outer shelf and at the deep-water chum spot; five species of shearwaters, including many Short-tailed and Sooty Shearwaters, allowing for great comparisons between these look-alike species; a late day, very cooperative Flesh-footed Shearwater that had eluded us in the morning; and many Buller's Shearwater and South Polar Skua. The mammal show was also great with many close Humpback Whales and concentrations of Pacific White-sided Dolphins that rode our bow wave and wake until some of us stopped looking at them.
Finally, the harbor and marina area at the end of the day produced an early Harlequin Duck and a nice assortment of shorebirds, including one of the long present Bar-tailed Godwits among the Marbled Godwit flock in the marina. Sadly, there are only two trips left in 2021 and both are full. But please keep an eye out for news about our 2022 schedule here and on the Westport Seabirds website. Thanks to everyone who joined us and made this another memorable year!
Gene Revelas
Olympia, WA
Birds
Harlequin Duck 1
Surf Scoter 97
White-winged Scoter 14
Pacific Loon 11
Common Loon 7
Red-necked Grebe 1
Western Grebe 30
Black-footed Albatross 23
N. Fulmar 67
N. Fulmar 10
Pink-footed Shearwater 689
Flesh-footed Shearwater 2
Buller's Shearwater 40
Sooty Shearwater 728
Short-tailed Shearwater 325
Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwater 235
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 70
Brandt's Cormorant 89
Double-cr. Cormorant 7
Pelagic Cormorant 10
Brown Pelican 10
Willet 3
Wandering Tattler 1
Bar-tailed Godwit 1
Marbled Godwit 800
Black Turnstone 11
Red-necked Phalarope 4
phalarope sp 8
South Polar Skua 8
Pomarine Jaeger 2
Parasitic Jaeger 2
Common Murre 176
Cassin's Auklet 111
Rhinoceros Auklet 19
Tufted Puffin 4
Sabine's Gull 16
Heerman's Gull 1
Mew Gull 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
California Gull 3455
Herring Gull 19
Glaucous-winged/Western Gull Hybrids 339
Total Birds 7448
Mammals
Humpback Whale 13
Gray Whale 2
Harbor Porpoise 7
Dall's Porpoise 1
Pacific White-sided Dolphin 325
Harbor Seal 1
Northern Fur Seal 2
California Sea-Lion 4
Northern (Steller's) Sea-Lion 1
Gene Revelas | Senior Consultant
Tel: 360.939.9618 | 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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