NFR Westport, * May 2022

Non-fishing related

Cabezon

Sculpin Enterprises
Forum Supporter
Westport, part 1 of 2. Yes, it does feel a little strange to be in Westport and not on my way offshore to chase tuna with @Nick Clayton. But that will happen in late August. And with the offshore weather, Nick and his fellow captains weren't heading out anyway for rockfish, lings, and halibut. So, this would be a birding trip. We parked at the end of the road and walked over the bridge onto float 20. Except for a few commercial boats, the slips were mostly empty at this time of year. There were a few hardy folks out crabbing from the floats, but the often-crowded dock was deserted.

Several juvenile and adult gulls were taking advantage of the quiet to doze on the ends of the walkways by the slips. I generally do not try to ID juvenile gulls, but one bird stood out with a very white appearance overall. In fact, it was a second-year glaucous gull, relatively rare outside of its breeding grounds in the Arctic.
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Glaucous gulls have white primaries and tail feathers and a very light mantle. On the next slip down, we saw a classic adult glaucous-winged gull, the dominant large gull in Puget Sound. In Greek, “glaucous” means blue-gray or pale gray.
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From the top of the walkway that leads to the top of the breakwater, we looked back over the quiet harbor. There was some activity on some of the commercial bottom trawlers that were unloading their catch. Later off the Westport breakwater, we did see several commercial trollers with their outriggers extended, possibly targeting king salmon. The poor weather offshore kept the few sport-fishing boats that were in the water at this time of year tied up to their slips.

From the walkway, we saw four pigeon guillemots flying around the E Street dock. They are very distinctive auks with a midnight black/brown plumage with a white wing patch and bright red feet. It appears that they might be nesting underneath the dock. They emitted a high-pitched whistle as they zoomed around the harbor.
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Crossing over to the walkway along the top of the breakwater, we spooked some shorebirds that had been foraging in a pocket beach. They included a spotted sandpiper. We later had a great view of another spotted sandpiper foraging on boulders exposed by the low tide.
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On the channel side of the breakwater, a double-crested cormorant dove for fish.
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It came up after one dive with a deep-bodied, silvery fish in its bill, perhaps a surfperch. After a moment to reposition the fish in its bill, the fish was down the hatch. At the tip of the breakwater, a pelagic cormorant was trying its luck as well for a while, before it rounded the corner and headed out into the channel.
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We had a short view of a common loon in prime breeding plumage as it dove for its lunch too. The back of a common loon has a white-and-black checkerboard pattern, with a matt-black head and bill, a striped band in the middle of a black throat, and a blood-red eye. But too soon, it swam too far off for good pictures. We had another look at a common loon that was hunting between two of the groins that protect the charter boat basin.
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But there was another loon in the boat basin that I tried for the longest time to convince myself was a yellow-billed loon. But after looking at it in more detail, I am convinced that it is a common loon still in its winter plumage. The kicker was the dark pigmentation on the superior surface of its bill; a yellow-billed loon lacks that pigmentation, alas. The blunt head was a light gray vs. the matt black of its breeding plumage. The back of this non-breeding individual appeared to have black and brown checker-board pattern on its back versus the black and white checker-board of the breeding plumage. This bird put on quite a show as it rested on the surface between dives. I managed to take several pictures from the top of the walkway as we walked back to the floating dock. And once we were on the floating dock, the loon came up quite close to the dock between dives. Great shots.
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We had crossed the bridge from the floats back to the parking area, but I spied two birds coming toward us along the rip-rap at the tide line. In the binocs, we could see that it was a pair of harlequin ducks. So, we headed back over the bridge to the float opposite the condo complex on this far arm of the breakwater. The pair were working hard for a meal as they jammed their bills between the rip rap rocks for edible morsels.
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Steve
 

Cabezon

Sculpin Enterprises
Forum Supporter
Part 2 of 2.
From here, we were off to Westhaven State Park at the base of the Westport Jetty. As is our pattern, we first scanned over the small freshwater pond behind the dunes. There can be some interesting riparian birds in the willows. There were several glaucous-winged gulls taking a freshwater bath. A pair of bufflehead hens were diving for a meal. A pair of mallards swam quietly by the margin of the lake. So, nothing unusual yet.

But there was a small solitary bird swimming at the far end of the small pond. Could it be? Yes, a phalarope!!! These are rare birds to see outside of their breeding grounds. In the winter, they are found off the coast of Ecuador, foraging on the rich plankton brought up by upwelling there. They then migrate up to the Arctic tundra to breed. Occasionally, you can see them offshore during migration. But here was a red-necked phalarope male in breeding plumage. It was paddling around the pond surface and occasionally picking something from the surface film.

The next question was whether it would stay if I approached closer for a better look (and better pictures). Amy and I carefully walked around the margin of the pond and drew closer. The bird did not seem to mind and I managed to take many pictures and some video clips of its behavior. The bird’s peripatetic movements played havoc with focus, but there were a few keepers. We backed away from the pond edge and a small flock of five more red-necked phalaropes joined the original bird.
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Phalaropes are unusual birds because the females are more brightly colored than are the males and they compete with other females for access to males. That is because it is the males that will raise the first clutch of eggs. While the first male is doing this, the females mates with a second male and he then raises the second clutch of eggs. On our way back, we looked over the pond once more and there were four red-necked phalaropes at the far end of the pond. Very cool find, a lifer for sure.

We ended the day with a side-trip near @Gyrfalcon22's neighborhood, off the Brady Loop Road between Hwy. 12 and the Chehalis River. We had several good views of savannah sparrows foraging in the green verge between the empty fields and the road. At one bend in the road, we came across a large, tight flock of a hundred or so cackling geese. A few white-fronted geese were scattered on the far side of the flock. The pond beyond included mallards, Northern pintails, and Northern shovelers. A northern harrier scared up a flock of sandpipers as it cruised past the edge of the pond. A little further along the road, we encountered an osprey in its nest on a platform at the top of a utility pole. Its mate was perched at the top of an adjacent pole and this bird had a fish in its talons that it was shredding. We managed to slowly approach both in our 4Runner and I captured some good pictures of one of the pair.
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Steve
 
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