A number of us did a seawatch at Pt Wilson, Port Townsend this afternoon.
We estimated about 40 Short-tailed and 10 Sooty Shearwaters, mostly
foraging in the area north of the point and west of Whidbey Island. Other
highlights included 4 phalaropes, likely Red, and a Cassin's Auklet.
On Tue, Oct 26, 2021 at 3:23 PM Josh Adams <
xjoshx at gmail.com> wrote:
>
Hello Tweets,
>
The winds over the last couple days didn't seem particularly conducive for
>
blowing pelagic birds into central Puget Sound, but historic storms do
>
weird things and reports of tubnoses at the north end of Admiralty Inlet
>
had my interest piqued so I did a seawatch from the Edmonds Pier this
>
morning.
>
>
Bird movement was overall fairly average in the main channel, but there
>
were extremely large numbers of gulls between Pt. No Point and the south
>
end of Whidbey Island. This area typically sees large groups of gulls, but
>
this might have been the highest number of active birds I can recall
>
seeing. I spent most of my time scanning these flocks hoping I'd be able to
>
pick something unusual out.
>
>
The most interesting bird of the day was a probable Brown Booby. For about
>
five minutes I watched a large dark bird that spent most of its time
>
gliding out with the gulls. The wings seemed long and thin (not broad like
>
a Pelican) and my initial gut reaction was an Albatross, but I eventually
>
felt I could rule that out based on behavior. Several times I had a view of
>
the underside which appeared to be light on the belly extending out to the
>
inner wings. At one point it appeared to plunge-dive. Alas, I lost it and
>
never saw it again after that.
>
>
Later while trying to relocate the bird above I had a brief view of what
>
was likely a Northern Fulmar, but the vast distance made definitive ID
>
difficult.
>
>
Josh Adams
>
Cathcart, WA
>
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>
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--
Steve Hampton
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