[Tweeters] Westport Seabirds Trip Report August 12, 2023

[Cara Borre]

Our Saturday, August 12th trip brought a great mix of birds together with a
fun group of birders.  Our enthusiast group consisted of a couple of
Westport pelagic veterans, and most others who were either on their first
or second trip into our waters. We began the trip at 6am under clear skies
with somewhat bumpy sea conditions, but our ride became smoother the
farther we got offshore.  Air temperatures were comfortable the entire day,
though the foggy conditions we encountered upon our return to Grays Harbor
brought the heat and visibility down considerably.  We remarked how lucky
we were that the fog waited until the end of the trip to appear.

We passed through the Common Murre and Sooty Shearwater zone uneventfully
on our way to distant shrimp boats.  As we entered deeper water we logged
our first Pink-footed Shearwater and this would be the most numerous
shearwater species for the day.  Eventually we came across three shrimp
boats spread out over a wide area.  While we saw many birds in this area,
they weren’t really attending any particular boat.  We decided to make our
own lemonade and started a bit of chumming to bring the birds to us.  It
wasn’t long before we had a good collection of Black-footed Albatross to
study, along with a few Northern Fulmar and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels.  As
our feeding continued, a Laysan Albatross came in to join the Black-footeds
gathered at our stern.  Unbelievably another Laysan showed up shortly after
the first and they were viewed and photographed side by side for quite some
time.  Certainly the highlight of the trip for many of us.

Heading further west we captured our FOY Buller’s Shearwater in flight,
then saw another resting on the water in a flock of Pink-footed Shearwater
on our return trip.  Though Short-tailed Shearwater numbers were low, we
picked up a few to make it a 4 shearwater day.

At our chum stop we had a close South Polar Skua fly by, highlighting its
impressive bulk compared to the delicate Long-tailed Jaegers we also had on
this segment.  The chum stop would also add a few Sabine’s Gull to our
tally as well as Arctic Tern.

Throughout the day we had several small flocks of phalaropes with more
Red-necked than Reds.  Alcids were scarce all day with only a single
Cassin’s Auklet seen on the water then quickly scurrying away from the
boat.  Rhinoceros Auklet were seen in several locations and in a large
flock toward the end of the trip.

We had a good showing for mammals including Gray Whale, Humpback Whale, a
Fin Whale spotted by Captain Phil that refused to reshow itself to most of
us, Dall’s Porpoise, a couple Pacific White-sided Dolphins and several
Northern Fur Seal.

We saw a few Blue Sharks and Ocean Sunfish during the day with one mammoth
specimen we stopped to watch as it eyed us as well.

Our capable crew consisted of Captain Phil Anderson and First Mate Chris
Anderson.  Spotters were Bill Tweit, Gene Revelas and me. Thanks to a great
group for making an excellent day on the water that much more fun due to
your excitement at seeing many of these species for the first time.


Hope to sea you out there!


Cara Borre

Gig Harbor
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