One year ago to the day a bunch of us gathered at Boiler Bay to do a seawatch
on the heals of big storm. That day featured one of the biggest gull flights
that I have ever seen along the Oregon. A river of gulls (Cals, Herring,
Thayer's, Glaucous-winged, Glaucous-winged X Westerns plus some Mews made up
the flock) streamed by at a constant rate of 100-200 per minute for several
hours. Instead of being offshore they were moving along the bluff and passing
mostly behind us as we faced the ocean.
Dave Irons
Portland, OR
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 26, 2015, at 3:56 PM, Phil Pickering <philliplc@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
7:30-8:45 (10/26):
mostly overcast wind SW 5-15, swells 8-10
light haze beyond 1 mile
Dense concentration of gulls visible during the first
45 minutes in large feeding groups and streaming
south .5-1.5 mile out, followed by diminishing
activity with many sitting after 8:15.
No small shearwaters detected but individuals would
have been easy to miss at any distance in the gull
chaos.
A couple times I observed jaeger-like behavior by
Pink-footed Shearwaters aggressively chasing gulls
in the feeding groups.
50 Red-throated Loon
250 Pacific Loon
150 Common Loon
1 Red-necked Grebe
30 Western Grebe
15+ Northern Fulmar
4+ Buller's Shearwater
200+ Pink-footed Shearwater (scattered S w/dozens
feeding in gull concentrations)
80+ Sooty Shearwater
60 Brown Pelican
60 Brandt's Cormorant
10 Pelagic Cormorant
36 Cackling Goose
2 Black Scoter
15 White-winged Scoter
500 Surf Scoter
1 Red-breasted Merganser
1 Dunlin
3 Pomarine Jaeger
1 Parasitic Jaeger
6 Bonaparte's Gull
800+ Mew Gull
4000+ California Gull
1200+ Herring Gull
600+ Western Gull
300+ Glaucous-winged Gull
1200+ Heermann's Gull
1 Sabine's Gull (juv)
5 Black-legged Kittiwake
4000+ Common Murre (most S)
2 Marbled Murrelet
4 Ancient Murrelet
300+ Rhinoceros Auklet (most S)
About 3000 distant mostly stationary gulls and
a few Pink-footeds were visible off Spanish Head
1:45 this afternoon.
Phil
philliplc@xxxxxxxxxxx
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