[Tweeters] WESTPORT PELAGIC TRIP, March 23, 2024. First trip of year. Parakeet Auklets and Fin Whales.

[Bruce LaBar]

Starting with rain as we departed and rain as we came back, the rest of day was fabulous with excellent viewing conditions! With 18 birders, mostly from Washington, we had a great first trip of the year. 
Record numbers for the month of March included: 15 Humpback Whales, 2,357 Common Murres, 4 Pink-footed Shearwaters, 7 Pomarine Jaegers, and the highlight for most of birders, 78 PARAKEET AUKLETS (probable record). 
The Parakeets kept everyone on the watch because they’re often spotted flying away as we near them on the water. However, with excellent observations by several of the birders on board, most everyone got to see them with even a couple close to the boat. In the past few years, we’ve found that this species is not that uncommon in the winter waters off Washington. 
Large numbers have been recorded recently by research ships and are now expected on our early spring trips.

Winter and early spring can be hard to find Albatross, Shearwaters, Storm-Petrels and Northern Fulmars. However, we did manage to see Pink-footed, Short-tailed, Sooty and a Manx Shearwater (seen by only a few). 
We also saw 5 Black-footed Albatross, 4 Northern Fulmars and no Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels. The alcids, in March, seem to be the most prevalent of the seabirds. Common Murre-2357, Pigeon Guillemot-7, Marbled Murrelets-3, Ancient Murrelets-50, Cassin’s Auklets-7, Rhinoceros Auklet-79 and the Parakeet Auklets kept us busy throughout the day. 

The other highlight was the whale show! Great views of 4 Fin Whales, 15 Humpback Whales and 5 Gray Whales were crowd pleasers for all.  

Many thanks to everyone who helped make this trip so great. Spotters included Scott Mills, Ryan Merrill and myself. Phil and Chris Anderson were Captain and First Mate. 

Bruce LaBar
Tacoma, WA
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