<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">Shortly after posting I found <a href="https://racerocks.ca/return-of-the-pigeon-guillemots/">this report</a> from last Thursday, Feb 2, 2023 at Race Rocks, off of Victoria, BC. It includes a photo of 8 PIGU titled “Shifting from winter plumage to summer plumage". Most are still “variable” and “smudgy”, but a couple are quite “black and white”. <div><br></div><div>So I guess it’s not too early for our “resident” PIGU in the southern Puget Sound to be putting on their new suits. </div><div><br></div><div>Tom Benedict</div><div>Seahurst, WA<br><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Feb 4, 2023, at 19:19, Tom Benedict <benedict.t@comcast.net> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div>Today, Feb 4th, 2023, at Brown’s Point Lighthouse I spotted, about 300 meters offshore, two black seabirds with white wing patches. They had the shape, bill and general disposition of a Pigeon Guillemot, so that’s what I called them. I’m quite sure these were not White-Winged Scoters. The head and bill were not the right shape, and there were no other scoters around.<br><br>However, now that I’m home and reviewing my observations, I’m wondering if it’s reasonable to have a Pigeon Guillemot in what looked to me like breeding plumage in early February? The were definitely not the “variable” or “smudgy” plumage of a winter PIGU.<br><br>Anyone else seeing Pigeon Guillemots these days? Are they "black and white" or “smudgy”?<br><br>Tom Benedict<br>Seahurst, WA</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>