[obol] 8 Laysan Albatrosses, Manx Shearwater

[Greg Gillson]

We set a personal record for The Bird Guide for LAYSAN ALBATROSSES today. 
There may be some argument about the actual number, but we're going with 8. 
We had 2 birds that seemed to circle the boat, move off, and come back 
repeatedly for about 2 hours as we traveled back home, making it seem like 
there were many more. We have had 7 birds on 5 February 2000 and 7 birds on 
21 May 2000.

The official results won't be posted for a couple of weeks, as I'm off on a 
week-long trip immediately. We had a MANX SHEARWATER about 6 miles off South 
Beach. About a half dozen birders got on it, but it disappeared in a wave 
trough amid hundreds of feeding murres, kittiwakes, and fulmars and we could 
not relocate it to the dismay of many. You may remember that The Bird 
Guide's first MANX SHEARWATER was photographed 8 miles off Newport on 1 
March 2003, not 4 miles from this bird. These are both the earliest records 
for Oregon, I believe.

Lots of light phase NORTHERN FULMARS. One early POMARINE JAEGER. One early 
FORK-TAILED STORM-PETREL. About 15-20 BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS. Five SOOTY 
SHEARWATERS, and only Troy Guy spotted a definite SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER 
early in the trip when it was raining. Most of the day was sunny, but large 
swell and slow going early.

I should be in bed, but here are a couple of photos from the trip...
http://thebirdguide.com/temp_images/IMG_2232_laysan_albatross.jpg
http://thebirdguide.com/temp_images/IMG_1642_northern_fulmar.jpg

Our next trip is April 19 and Laysan Albatross and Manx Shearwater are both 
possible, along with more species of migrant seabirds. Please check our web 
site for details and registration: http://thebirdguide.com/pelagics/

Greg Gillson
The Bird Guide, Inc.
greg at thebirdguide.com