Westport, WA 9/24 - 9/29, Part 3

Finally, after five days the rain stopped and the ocean was kind enough to allow boats to return to work. The main purpose of our Washington trip was to get out on this pelagic venture and now it was time. We were the first participants to arrive at the dock, or float as the western locals called it. We were sailing on the Monte Carlo from Float 10. The Monte Carlo is about a 50-foot vessel, smaller than the pelagic boats we are used to riding on the East coast. There were only 18 participants for this ride, so comfort wasn’t a problem. After a brief introduction and orientation, we set off at about 6:30 a.m. The seas seemed much better than the forecasted five to six foot swells.

The sun rising behind Mt. Rainier, WA. © S. Weiss

Heading out of the inlet Friday morning, the silhouette of Mt. Rainer about 160 or so miles away is impressive.

As we made our way out of the inlet onto the Pacific, we slowly began picking up seabirds. The early checklist for the inshore portion included scoters, western grebes, common and pacific loons. A few alcids, like common murre and rhinoceros auklet, were also seen close to shore. The common murres and rhinos (as the spotters called them) were seen often throughout the day. It would be safe to say that we saw more common murres during the week than any of the three of us would see over our lifetimes back in New Jersey. The staff told us that several shrimp and fishing boats were working out in the deeper water, and that’s where we would head. The working boats are magnets for seabirds, much better than the birding boat creating its own chum slick.

Left, rhinoceros auklet. Right, common murres. © S. Weiss

As we headed further out, we began picking up sooty shearwaters. I didn’t take many photos of them since I’ve seen plenty on the Right Coast. That was my mistake because as the spotters pointed out some short-tailed shearwaters (one of six new life birds on the day), they looked quite similar to sooties, I could have sorted out the two later in photos. We had nearly a thousand sooties on the day and only about a dozen short-tails. We had some distant south polar skuas as we headed towards deeper water but got great looks of a pair later in the day that hung close to the boat for a bit.

Two south polar skuas flying around the boat. © S. Weiss

As we got closer to a pair of shrimp boats, the bird numbers and variety increased. More new life birds appeared: pink-footed shearwaters, Buller’s shearwaters and Cassin’s auklets. Some familiar birds were around too: red and red-necked phalaropes, parasitic and pomarine jaegers, and northern fulmars. The recently acquainted fork-tailed storm-petrels were now more abundant and closer to view. Close to the shrimp boats there were many birds picking at the scraps created by the fishermen’s process of catching and hauling in their quarry. Trailing the back of the fishing boats were many gulls and fulmars; some shearwaters and storm-petrels, and one life bird I really wanted to see - an albatross! A black-footed albatross, unmistakable with its long wings, glided gracefully around the foraging pack of smaller seabirds. We would get good looks at several of these awesome birds either sitting on the water or effortlessly gliding around our boat.

Fork-tailed storm-petrels. © S. Weiss

Larger than our eastern storm-petrels, it is the only all gray bodied storm-petrel.

Buller’s shearwater. © S. Weiss

Note clean white underside of the Buller’s, and it’s uniquely marked backside.

Northern fulmars. © S. Weiss

Right photo is of both morphs side by side. Dark morphs are more common in the northwest, and the light morph is more common in the east. Note the downward angle of the fulmar's bill, it appears more downward than on shearwaters.

Left, pink-footed shearwater. Right, Cassin’s auklets. © S. Weiss

The pink-footed shearwater is the same size as the great shearwater of the East Coast. Cassin's auklets are slightly larger than the dovekies of the eastern seaboard.

Black-footed albatross. © S. Weiss

The pale face behind the bill is distinctive.

The last life bird of the day (and 17th of the week) came as we worked our way back. It was the other bird I really wanted to see, a Sabine’s gull. One had been seen earlier in the day, but was a very distant bird that I missed. They are normally a given bird to see on these Westport pelagics, and the previous week there were plenty around. The storm may have hastened their migration through the area, and I frankly didn’t care what they saw before my arrival. The later it got and the more we moved away from where most of the seabird activity was, the more I felt my opportunity to see one fade. I expressed my concern to Jason, who I believe was also sans a Sabine’s gull. Not long after he said, “We still have time,” some one spotted a distant gull flying towards the boat. A spotter identified it as a Sabine’s. It came closer (not as close as I would have preferred) and I was able to get off some photographs as it flew away. The photos were not great, but they’ll do (for now).

Lost in the photos is the clean charcoal gray to black head with a thin black boarder against the white body, and yellow tipped bill. Also, the upper wings have a distinct three tone colored M pattern - black, white and gray.

The last big Wow! moment of the trip came as the boat was approaching the inlet on the way back. A gray whale breached less than a few hundred feet directly in front of the boat. I’m sure everyone aboard saw it, but it happened so unexpectedly that no one got that photo. Without warning, the whale did an encore breach. All I was able to capture was its splash, but Jason got the money shot.

Physical characteristics of a gray whale are the very low-profile dorsal fin, followed by knuckles along its back from dorsal fin to tail (seen in right photo). Gray whales are an endangered species.