Birds In Bunches

Not that it wasn't beautiful out there on Third Beach, but we weren't paying much, well really not any, attention to that.

Third Beach, Olympic National Park (Click for larger image.)

We were working the bird wreck, me and BR and AM from WDFW. 62 dead birds on the north half of the beach. One red-throated loon, one pelagic cormorant, and 60 scoters. I was data recorder, A. tagged and took photos, B. did measuring. When I left at sunset they were headed for the south half of the beach. B. didn't expect to find nearly so many on the south half, the north half is where they accumulate. Hope he was right... A. loaned me her spare headlamp, good thing, it was too dark to see in the forest before I got back to the car. The two of them were going to keep on with headlamps until they had finished (I think rapidly cover the whole beach and move all the dead birds to one spot, then do the workups with the lamps.) The survey doesn't count unless you do the entire assigned segment all in the same day.

Sunset, Working Fast, Bunches of Birds (Click for larger image.)

I rarely stopped long enough to put notes in my pocket notebook, it's all on the data sheets that B. has. But I think there were about a dozen white-winged scoters, and the other 48 were surf scoters.

Today going to Rialto Beach with AE, another COASSTer. Please god Rialto should have only a dozen or so as it did last week. Lucky for me, Ann is driving. I am TOTALLY WIPED OUT.

PS Gonna get a headlamp immediately. Headlamps are the bomb.

Part of the huge accumulation at the north end of Third Beach (Click for larger image.)