Jimmy Billstine and I did a seawatch from Silver Point, south of Canon Beach.
We were later joined by Diana Byrne and Steve Warner. There were quite few
SOOTY SHEARWATERS and RED PHALAROPES moving south. We saw a few NORTHERN
FULMAR as well. I got on a white-bodied Procellarid that seemed a bit smaller
than the closer Sooty Shearwaters. However, it was further out and distance may
have distorted my impression of size. It had a whitish head, grayish-brown
body and a white body and underwings that were bordered with a thick black line
mostly along the trailing edge of the wing.
The white head eliminated Buller's, Manx and Pink-footed Sheatwater. The
black border to the underwing and lack of white flash to the base of the
primaries eliminated a light-morph Northern Fulmar. I didn't notice any strong
back pattern (M) which made me lean away from any Cookilaria or Buller's
Shearwater. The bird just didn't seem large enough for a Streaked Shearwater,
but size was hard to judge at this distance.
I consider myself a fairly experienced pelagic birder and this bird just didn't
jive with anything in my wheelhouse. The only thing that was definitive was
that it was a tubenose.
Other than that, numbers and species composition are marginally close to what
Mike P observed from the S Jetty.
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32400344
Good birding,
Russ Namitz
Medford, OR
