FW: [vanbcbirds] Point Roberts October 27 2013‏

Whatcom Birders,

 Message forwarded from the VANBCBIRDS group. Liron Gertsman is a very enthusiastic and talented teen birder who frequently reports his bird sightings in the Vancouver area.

 Wayne C. Weber

From: vanbcbirds@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vanbcbirds@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of lironsnatureworldsite

Sent: October-27-13 2:53 PM
To: vanbcbirds@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [vanbcbirds] Point Roberts October 27 2013

 I spent the morning and the beginning of the afternoon at Lighthouse Marine Park in Point Roberts today. Lots of birds were around, especially earlier in the visit. The weather was great but it was really windy, especially earlier in the day. This meant that there were white caps out on the ocean and lots of waves, so it was very hard to keep individual birds in sight!

There were some Harlequin Ducks feeding along the shore providing some great views. Also near shore were some Common Loon, Horned Grebe, and Red-necked Grebe, and both Pelagic and Double-crested Cormorants. Some Pigeon Guillemots were also feeding close to shore as well as fly-by Sanderling, oneDunlin, and Common Mergansers.

Going a bit farther out, the next layer of birds included Surf Scoters, White-winged Scoters, and one maleBlack Scoter that flew by. There were also more Common Merganser, Common Loon, and two Red-throated Loons. Some Western Grebe were also present.

Going even farther out, birds included two Bufflehead, and many feeding flocks. These feeding flocks includedPacific Loon, Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants, and many gulls including hundreds of Bonaparte's Gulls, some Mew Gulls, some Glaucous-winged Gulls, and a few Glaucous-winged Gull hybrids. Kevin Louth also spotted a Heermann's Gull which he showed me through is scope. As for alcids, many Common Murre were feeding around the flocks. There were also some Ancient Murrelets far out as well, but they were not near the feeding flocks. Marbled Murrelets were also present including one bird that was very close to shore.

It was a great time of birding!

Other birds that I saw:

15 Canada Goose (fly over)

1 Bald Eagle (fly over)

1 Black Oystercatcher (fly by)

15 Crows

2 European Starling

-Liron Gertsman, Vancouver