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INSTITUTE FOR FIELD ORNITHOLOGY

2006 IFO Pacific Northwest Seabirds Report

Instructor: Dennis Paulson • 2-8 February 2006 • Coastal Washington State

The workshop was a great success, as the birds were always cooperative even when the weather wasn't. The group started with a visit to the Slater Museum of Natural History in Tacoma, where the 15 participants were treated to tables full of Northwest seabird specimens to admire and compare. At lunch at a restaurant right on Commencement Bay in Tacoma we were fortunate to observe one seabird after another, from cormorants and diving ducks to alcids and gulls, so our critical need to see some live birds was assuaged as well. After that, we headed north to Mount Vernon, the center of our first few days of field work, with a side trip to the Skagit Flats to watch the concentration of Snow Geese that winter there. We were there late enough in the day that a series of Bald Eagles flew over a flock of 5000+ birds on their way to a hillside roost, each eagle flushing the entire flock in a wave. The blizzard of birds - much noisier than any blizzard - was awe-inspiring. Two very distant Snowy Owls were disappointing for those who badly wanted to see that species, present in some numbers during this flight year. A Short-eared Owl briefly flew over a nearby dike, so we started our seabird workshop with owls.

On our second day, we headed for Drayton Harbor and Semiahmoo Spit, almost at the Canadian border, where I have usually found great concentrations of water birds. Unlike last year's workshop, with superb weather every day, this day had the dubious distinction of issuing in the biggest storm in years in the Pacific Northwest, with almost hurricane-force gusts of wind and driving rain. Nevertheless, we were able to stand in the lee of various tree groves and buildings and see a lot of birds, the latter unfazed by the weather. We had fine views of loons, grebes, waterfowl, gulls, and shorebirds, although many of them were hunkered down as we were. With a group this large, almost any species we saw had the potential to excite at least a few of the participants. We lucked out at our lunch stop at Birch Bay because a tall forest stood between us and the gale, and we could actually stand outside on the beach and scope the bay full of birds of all kinds. We then visited the Samish Flats east of Padilla Bay, where we had seen so many raptors last year. The winds kept raptor activity to a minimum, but we still managed to see the Rough-legged Hawks that were much in demand. Alas, last year's Gyrfalcon failed to return this year.

The next morning we woke up to the "calm after the storm," and anything else would have been a disaster on this, the day of our all-day boat trip. We set out on the Viking Star from La Conner into Padilla Bay, then around the San Juan Islands and back. Cormorants, alcids, sea ducks, loons, and grebes were constantly in sight, Bald Eagles everywhere. We soon found what many considered the best bird of the trip. I had assured them we would see no tubenoses, but in Bellingham Channel, there in front of us on the water was a Northern Fulmar, quite unexpected in these waters but presumably blown in by the gales of yesterday! This tame bird provided great looks and good photo opportunities. Rhinoceros Auklets have been very scarce all winter, so we were fortunate to find a few at the same spot, and soon afterward encountered a little bunch of Ancient Murrelets, another species often hard to find. Amazingly, they were mixed with a few Marbled Murrelets, affording great comparisons. A Clark's Grebe briefly seen on our way back to port was another "good" bird for the location, as very few of them winter in Washington. The long boat ride also gave us looks at several species of marine mammals, not to mention a Porcupine scrambling up an open hillside on one of the islands.

The next day, we left Mount Vernon and headed across to the coast but stopped at Campbell Lake and Rosario Beach, where we had encounters with numerous land birds as well as freshwater ducks and good looks at Black Oystercatchers. A Spotted Sandpiper, Mourning Dove, and Hairy Woodpecker at Rosario Beach were all species I had never seen there before, so birding was good for the instructor as well as the participants. We then drove down Whidbey Island, passing over the same high Deception Pass bridge we had boated under the previous day, stopping along the west coast at several places and adding to our many views of loons, grebes, alcids, scoters, Long-tailed Ducks and others. A stint at the west end of Crockett Lake turned up a Lesser Yellowlegs, very rare in winter, in a small flock of Greaters, and afternoon sunlight glistening off the heads of bright male dabbling ducks of several species. We ended up on the ferry across to Port Townsend, where we were thrilled by feeding flocks of seabirds in mid-channel, including what must have been about a hundred pairs of Marbled Murrelets, the largest concentration I've heard about in recent years. The west coast of Whidbey is well known for its large numbers of seabirds, and we weren't disappointed. One of the high points of the day was studying all three of the Pacific Northwest cormorants, including some of each in breeding plumage, in a roosting flock in the beautiful late afternoon sunlight. Once our stormy day was over, we often caught the lighting just right, so birds were presented at their most stunning. Of course we were always on the lookout for foraging behavior, flight styles, and courtship behavior, and we were gratified by how much behavior we were able to observe - including my first-ever copulating Black Scoters.

Our last full day was spent around Port Townsend. We drove to Ediz Hook, a long spit protecting Port Angeles, and saw more concentrations of Barrow's Goldeneyes, Harlequins, Black Turnstones, all three loons, and others. A flock of Sanderlings feeding on bird seed with House Sparrows was a first for most of us. We then stopped at two places along Dungeness Bay, a shallow bay behind another long sand spit that furnished repeated encounters with the species we had been seeing. Everyone appreciated seeing the common and not-so-common species over and over again, in different lights and at different distances, in flight and at rest, really learning their identification and as much about their habits as we were able to see. But I'll have to say the most thrilling bird here was a snow-white Snowy Owl spotted by one of the participants perched high on a piece of driftwood some distance out on the spit in front of us but well seen in the powerful scopes. Jubilation reigned! We then spent considerable time conducting a sea watch from Point Wilson, a projecting point from which all birds leaving and entering Puget Sound can be seen with spotting scopes. Before the chilling northeast wind finally drove us back to the vans, we were able to compare the flight styles of four species of alcids and three of cormorants, as well as loons and grebes that passed in review. We capped off the day with large flocks of very tame Brants feeding and gabbling in the waning sunlight at Point Hudson in Port Townsend.

On our final day, we spent the morning at Mystery Bay and Fort Flagler State Park on Marrowstone Island, where flocks of shorebirds entertained us and we got to study Thayer's and other gulls at some length at a roost. We then drove to Winslow, opposite Seattle, and took the ferry over to the Emerald City, getting looks at quite a few of our now familiar seabirds on the way over. Everyone was delivered on time back to the hotel near SeaTac.

Our trip total was 103 species, a good number for this time of year, as we spent relatively little time looking for songbirds. We averaged about 60 species each day and saw exciting seabirds such as Pacific Loons, Western Grebes, Brandt's Cormorants, Brants, Eurasian Wigeons, Long-tailed and Harlequin Ducks, Barrow's Goldeneyes, Black Oystercatchers, Black Turnstones, and Pigeon Guillemots numerous times. We had dinners at several outstanding restaurants and tasty box lunches. I can truthfully say the workshop went essentially perfectly from start to finish, and I hope for an equally successful rerun next year.

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