Washington & Oregon!

Dec 3 

In the backseat of the car, with Dave driving and Shawneen as co-pilot, I half-slept on the way to eastern Washington, and the almost four hour drive went quickly. We arrived at the small marina that the Slaty-backed Gull had most often been seen at, around 8:30 am. The bird has wintered here for a few years now and had been present in the area for almost two months. We scanned. Waited around a bit. Scanned. Nothing. We drove a few miles either direction, along the river, scanning, waiting. Nothing. We came across a small urban duck pond of sorts, with lots of non-native geese, a few snow geese, some Mallards, and a lot of gulls. One of the gulls was an Iceland (Thayer's) Gull. I did a bit of digiscoping to document it, and we continued on to resume our look for the Slaty-backed. We made our way back to the marina that we had begun at, and there it was on the small metal roof, just as it was depicted in many of the photos I'd seen on eBird. Slaty-backed Gull! In all, it'd taken about three hours for us to find it, and even though we knew it had to be around somewhere, I was relieved. 

We next drove to a giant cow farm where we looked for quite some time for a Rusty Blackbird, but came up empty handed. We stopped for dinner at a pub on the way home. As soon as we got back to Portland, I went straight to bed. I felt jet lagged and exhausted. 

Year List: 711

Dec 4

Up early again, this time to head to the coast to look for Ancient Murrelet. It was possible we would see them on the pelagic trip out of Newport, which had been rescheduled from today to tomorrow, but I didn't want to risk missing it on the boat and having to invest extra days after the fact if we didn't. On the way to seawatch at Boiler Bay, we swung through the Williamette Valley, a known Gyrfalcon location, but no luck. Then, on to seawatching. We didn't spend too much time at Boiler Bay before Dave picked out two pretty quickly. I was able to pan with my binoculars and get on the Ancient Murrelets pretty quickly, then got them in my scope for about five seconds, at which point they landed on the ocean and appeared to have dove immediately. We were unable to refind them, but I was happy with the brief, yet identifiable views. 

We tried a second time for Gyrfalcon on the return trip, but came up empty again. Two squabbling Peregrines were the best we could do. 

Year List: 712 

Dec 5

Up superrrr early and out the door by 4:45, for the 2.5 hour drive to Newport for the pelagic trip through Oregon Pelagic Tours. My target was Laysan Albatross. Anything else would be a bonus! 

We arrived around 7:15, waited for others to show, and listened in to the the standard orientation, already feeling cold at about 43 degrees. Dave & Shawneen were two of the leaders, along with Bill and Dave. 

As we were finishing the boat part of the orientation, Shawneen caught my attention and was whispering something to me from across the boat. I quietly made my way over to her side as the captain was talking. Glaucous Gull in the harbor! A good start to the day. 

Lots of Common Murres, a good number of Ancient Murrelets, a Cassin's Auklet or two, and eventually we were at our first chum spot. The captain stopped the boat, and fish oil and popcorn was dispersed behind the boat, creating a visible oil slick. In almost no time, lots of gulls found it, then a few Black-footed Albatross, then a Laysan Albatross came in to investigate the boat, giving great views! 

Soon after, I was starting to get pretty tired from the seasick meds, and I was very cold, and was not having a ton of fun. But, that changed pretty quickly with our second chum stop! Again, after not much time at all, a young Short-tailed Albatross, dark and giant with its bubble gum colored bill was heading toward the boat. Only one problem - I was on the wrong side of the boat and couldn't see it! I got to the other side of the boat as quickly as I could without knocking anyone else over as we were rocking in the swells. It had crossed the bow again, and was on the other side! I ping-ponged myself across the boat again, and finally saw the bird. Yesssss! Short-tailed Albatross!!!! 

This is a globally endangered bird, and is very rare anywhere, but Oregon Pelagic Tours has had them regularly on their December trips for several years now. This particular boat, in this particular month, seems to be the best chance to find them along the entire west coast, and today proved that! 

Dave being Dave, had taken a candid shot of my disenjoyment while I was cold and tired, which contrasted well later on with a candid he took later of my excitement over the Short-tailed Albatross! 

We headed back to Portland, Dave having driven us 1,019 miles in the last few days. I'd fly out tomorrow morning to Newark, New Jersey, in hopes of my nemesis bird, Pink-footed Goose. I'm ten birds away from the record, which continues to look increasingly feasible. 

Year List: 715