[Tweeters] Westport Seabirds Trip Report August, 31

[Cara Borre via Tweeters]

Westport Seabirds said farewell to a fabulous August on Saturday, August
31.  We left the dock at sunrise with mild temps amid a curtain of fog.
Captain Phil took a northwest tack heading for a lone shrimp boat in the
distance.  Ghostly apparitions of Sooty Shearwater and Common Murre would
occasionally materialize out of the fog to hold our attention during the
morning journey.  Well out to sea, the fog eventually lifted, and we would
spend the rest of our day in bright sunshine, progressively shedding layers
as it heated up.

A couple hours in we spotted a large raft of Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel.  As
we approached Phil announced over the boat’s speakers, “Look out for
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel coming down the left side of the boat”.  In a flash
the rare black storm-petrel with a bright white rump zipped down the Monte
Carlo’s left side before it quickly sailed out of sight.  Unlike our
resident Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel, who makes its home in the North Pacific
ocean, Wilson’s Storm-Petrel ranges all the world’s oceans, though they are
rare up here in the North Pacific.  We’re having great luck with this
species lately with the number of sightings in the last two weeks rivaling
the numbers seen in the previous 3 decades!  We had our first South Polar
Skua of the day shortly after the storm-petrel excitement marking the first
of 13 sightings in total for this species.

Continuing our voyage, adding Pink-footed Shearwater along the way, the
shrimper finally appeared on the horizon.  As we grew closer, we could see
we would be in for a treat as there was a good collection of birds around
the vessel.  With a bounty of bird activity both in the sky and on the sea,
it was difficult to choose where to begin to look.   Black-footed
Albatross, by far our most common albatross, is always an exciting species
to see and we were treated to 25 of them on the water and flying by.
Looking skyward, It was hard to ignore some 125 Sabine’s Gull flying about
the boat then moving to the surface to pick up scraps of shrimp.  We could
distinguish a few juveniles along with the gorgeous black-headed adults.
Among the many Sabine’s in flight, we soon picked out several terns and
counted 15 Arctic and at least one Common Tern in this large group.

Understanding this was the only boat we were likely to encounter during our
trip, we circled it and the birds on the water several times, lingering to
scan the vast flocks of shearwater.  Pink-footed Shearwater (400 at boats)
held the majority for the tubenoses with 700 total birds to sort through.
Sooty Shearwater, and its look-a-like Short-tailed Shearwater were both
present in about equal, but small numbers.  We were lucky to see a few
Buller’s Shearwater fly by, but even luckier to spot 1 or 2 resting on the
water within the horde of Pink-foots.  Luck and perseverance can also
produce a Flesh-footed Shearwater within these flocks this time of year and
indeed we would find one, capping off five species of shearwater all within
this relatively small area surrounding the shrimp boat.  We also had
several Northern Fulmar and large flocks of Red-necked Phalarope in the
vicinity.

A large group of birds around a boat like this is bound to attract
jaegers.  Just as the tubenoses are attracted to the fishing boats by the
smell of their haul, jaegers or skuas, as they are also known, are
attracted to the concentration of birds they see around these boats.
Jaegers coerce food from gulls, terns, and shearwaters.  They chase these
birds and intimidate them into dropping or regurgitating their food item
which the jaeger quickly scoops up.  We had 2 South Polar Skua and two each
of Long-tailed and Pomarine Jaeger at the boat.  One of the Long-tailed
Jaegers entertained us by a demonstration of its flight prowess as it
repeatedly maneuvered to catch an evasive moth.

With time well spent at the boat, we began the journey back to Westport,
skipping our chum stop as the shrimp boat had produced excellent viewing
and photo opportunities.  We always pause for anything interesting on the
way back such as great looks at 2 very cooperative Cassin’s Auklet diving
and surfacing several times as we watched.  We had a group of 3-4 South
Polar Skua on the water that all lifted up when we approached giving us
even better looks at this species.  We stopped several times offshore to
scan the shearwater flocks on the water and were able to pick out Buller’s
Shearwater a couple more times and found another Flesh-footed Shearwater
attempting to blend in with its more common cousin Pink-footed Shearwater.

We had a great showing from a couple of close Humpback Whale who surfaced
and simultaneously “fluked” right in front of us.  The mammal highlight
though, was a less commonly seen Minke Whale who surfaced several times
allowing everyone to get good views.

With the coast in sight we were greeted by huge flocks of Sooty
Shearwater.  We usually end our trips with a seasonal search for rock
shorebirds on the Westport Jetty, and with the sun baking our starboard
side, we found a cooperative Wandering Tattler.  The Marbled Godwit flock
was on the rocks at the far end of the marina and Phil brought us in close
where we spotted 2 Bar-tailed Godwits within the flock of 800 birds, as
well as a couple of Willets and a few Short-billed Dowitchers.

Captain Phil Anderson and First Mate Chris Anderson hosted a great group of
Northwest birders, many who enjoyed their first pelagic birding trip, but I
bet not their last.  Scott Mills, Bruce LaBar and I were the bird spotters
with helpful assists from a couple of pelagic veterans and friends.


Hope to sea you out there!


Cara Borre

Gig Harbor
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