Dawn Chorus: wintertime offshore birds in the Salish Sea

That Belted Kingfisher on Harlequin Rock marks the edge of the protected bay where buffleheads, grebes and mergansers spend the winter months. Beyond here we get into rougher deeper water with a different set of birds. I’ve shared the birds of summer (with maps) and spring at the Dawn Chorus, so this is a good time to add the winter populations. We go out in our 25-foot boat every couple of weeks, our usual route winding through small islands and rocks, rounding the sea lion rocks, and returning by way of the open strait. Here’s who we’ve been seeing over the past month offshore beyond Harlequin Rock.

The alcids are far fewer in winter. Haven’t seen a Rhinoceros auklet in months, and Tufted Puffins are just a summer’s dream. Mostly it’s Pigeon Guillemots in their mottled gray winter plumage. The gigantic flotillas of Common Murres are dispersed now but we’ll usually see a few, with their winter eyeline. All these alcids are far more striking in their summer garb.

Pigeon Guillemots Common Murres

The real excitement this winter was my first ever sighting of Ancient Murrelets. 

You know how you can recognize many birds by their general shape and how they carry themselves? The Ancients are exactly like the Marbled Murrelets, who are scarce but regular residents all year. But there was something not right about these birds....

Ancient Murrelets

...compared to these. Interestingly, the winter plumage of both murrelets is sharper and more striking than their mottled brown of summer, the opposite of all the other alcids.

Marbled Murrelet

Yellow bill, no white on wings and different coloring pattern on their head. Ancients behave differently too. They skim along the surface in a group, do a buttonhook and all dive at once. It’s how they hunt. I’ve watched them do this over and over.  Ancients like deep water and for most of the year are pelagic.

Ancients in flight looking for baitfish

Bald eagles have returned after an autumn over on the mainland foraging on spawned-out salmon. It sure is wonderful seeing them every day again. Many are in pairs.

Yep, that one’s doing what you think. It looks more magnificent now :) (different background as the boat chugs alongside this island)

Hall Island, the primary gull nesting colony in the area, is deserted now. The adult and juvenile gulls have dispersed all over the area. Whale Rocks, where sea lions haul out in winter, is one place to find them, along with other kinds of birds. The surrounding shallow shoals and kelp beds are rich with fish and invertebrates if you can handle the racing turbulent tidal currents.

Harlequin ducks take a break Steller sea lions share the rock reluctantly. They will roar at birds that get too close. These are mostly Brandt’s cormorants but you may be able to where’s-waldo the Double-crested and Pelagic cormorants in this photo. Some days the rocks are wall to wall cormorants.  Gulls hang out here too, mostly Glaucous-winged. Center-left is a very unusual bird: a Glaucous-winged x Western gull hybrid, sometimes known as an Olympic gull. Western gulls are incidental in these inland waters, so I don’t know how the hybrid came to be here.

I have a great fondness for gulls, more than other people I gather, perhaps because I mostly see them in their wild world rather than as pests scavenging around people. I’m starting to get familiar with juveniles, which is not as hard here as elsewhere since we don’t have many species and those have particular times they are present hereabouts. For example, the last of the Heermann’s and California gulls departed in early November. Besides a rare Thayers, Western, Bonapartes or Ring-bill, the only gull species in winter are GWGUs and Mew gulls. The GWGUs are 4-year gulls and MEGUs are 3-year gulls. Their juvenile stages can be distinguished by beak and plumage colors. I love the mix of gray and brown feathers in this young GWGU.

A 3rd-winter GWGU and a 1st-winter MEGU same as above adult Mew gulls on a kelp bed

Occasionally I’ll see loons out in these deep waters. Have only seen Pacific loons once this winter; usually it’s Common Loons in their dull brown winter plumage with a white neck and breast. A few days ago I saw an unusual-looking loon. It almost looks like it’s transitioning into breeding plumage with the white spots on its back and a darker head. This seems early. Thoughts?

Common Loon, Nov 11 Common Loon, Nov 22 Common Loon, Dec 14

A few weeks ago I saw a flock of about 30 shorebirds, Dunlins I’m pretty sure. As they flitted across the water they were startled once by a sea lion surfacing! Too close ;-)

Quick turn past the surfacing sea lion

There’s a certain spot between two islands where if I’m going to see scoters that’s where they’ll be. Lots of crabs and shellfish there. By far the most common are Surf Scoters....

male and female Surf Scoters

…..but this winter I’ve been seeing more White-winged Scoters than usual. The males have a nike swish over their eye,

female and 2 male White-winged Scoters

and they all have big white patches (natch) on their wings so you can distinguish them flying from far off.

White-winged Scoters

Even more unusual this winter was a purely accidental sighting of a Long-tailed duck! I’ve only seen these twice, ever. I was taking pictures of the white harbor seals below the Cezanne Wall, and there it was in the photo. Out of focus, but still. It’s one of the reasons I like to take pictures. My zoom lens is my binoculars and the camera captures what I see, to examine carefully later. Bumping along in the boat, with wind and sun and reflections, even looking and looking everywhere, sometimes I discover a special surprise once I get home! Have you ever discovered an unexpected bird that way?

Yes there’s a female Long-tailed duck in this photo.

We take more or less the same route each time but it is never boring. As the seasons change, the birds come and go. I’m still relatively new at birding so I’m just starting to see changes from year to year too.

Time now for you to report what you’ve been seeing in the bird world lately. Please add your observations in the comments. This diary is scheduled to post at 6am PST (fingers crossed) and I’ll catch up with folks later, after I wake up.