[obol] Need Help WIth Pelagic Species ID

[Cindy Ashy]

It was a cold blustery afternoon at Yaquina Head and I
chose to stay protected inside my vehicle with my hot
coffee to watch the surf and birds.  WIth the driver's
window open at a high pull-out, I had an excellent
view of all the birds that flew by on the south side.
Mostly I saw long lines of distant cormorants flapping
their little hearts out. There were also several small
flocks of Brown Pelicans flying very low over the
water closely hugging the headland (most flocks
passing by barely south of Seal Island). In 3 of the
pelican flocks that passed by, there were other birds
less than half the size of the pelicans flying in
formation with them. Superficially, they looked like
gulls but I'm almost certain they weren't gulls. There
were only a total of 4 of them flying with the
pelicans (one was leading the pelican line) but I went
back later in the afternoon (after the rains) to try
to find them again and I think I saw one more by
itself but more distant.  I  have no experience with
pelagic birding but I believe these birds may have
been either shearwaters or fulmars.  The mostly white
wings were trimmed in black and there white tail had a
black band at the end.  I just saw Alan's post about
Sooty Shearwaters in coastal Lane County so I've
studied these in my guides very carefully but the
birds I saw had much more white (some pure bright
white) on their wings with very dark edges (stark
contrast) than what my guides show. The beak was too
short for an albatross and the wing ratio all wrong.
The body porportions seemed closer to a gull (but
almost definitely different than any of the gulls we
have here) which has me thinking maybe a fulmar
instead of a shearwater...and it seemed like the beak
was stubby but I did not get a good enough look to be
100% certain about that.

I'm hoping some of you can give me some specific
suggestions and help me know exactly what I need to be
looking for. I plan to go back tomorrow.

Has anyone else ever seen shearwaters or fulmars
flying with pelicans so close to shore?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cindy Ashy


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Check out the hottest 2008 models today at Yahoo! Autos.
http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html