I did a McMinnville seawatch today.
4:11 AM - open one eye to look at clock
4:20 - go to bathroom, start computer
Check Depoe Bay weather: sunrise at 7; rain at 9; wind from S, ~10 mph
Decide to go for it
5:00 - shower, feed birds, load up
5:30 - launch from home
7:00 - arrive Boiler Bay, nice conditions
Seawatch. Help Ohio birder ID some birds
See distant Sooty Shearwaters ~25
See one smaller shearwater, white underneath, NO DETAILS
* This is the closest I've come, in 11 days of looking, to seeing what
might have been Manx/Black-vented. :^/
8:15 - serious rain. We retreated to pedestrian walkway under the bridge at
Depoe Bay.
8:30 - 9:30 - search for birds from that shelter. Rain hard.
Found him Heermann's Gulls, Mew Gulls.
Watched Black Oystercatchers multiply from 6 to 14.
No rock pipers.
9:30 - braved rain to find him Black Turnstones and Surfbird near Spouting
Horn
10:00 - 11:00 - seawatch from car at Boiler Bay, running the heater full on.
Saw few birds.
11:00 - 12:30 - return home. Throw everything I'm wearing in the dryer.
Moral of the story: Be thankful if you live at the coast and can do this in
ONE hour and see more birds.
Good birding, everyone,
Paul Sullivan
