Leaving Seattle

I spent a couple of hours birding at Nisqually Wetlands. It just pissed it down with rain, so it was a fitting way to end the trip here. Apparently it has been one of the wettest Septembers on record here. I can believe that.

I make my way back to the airport and check in with no problems to Paris only. My only criticism of the airport is the poor duty free choice. They certainly have friendly security and immigration staff here.

The final stage of the trip is a couple of days in Paris; it's his big seven-o on 22nd, so I'm helping him to celebrate.

Last big birding drive

I get up early and take a quick look around Westport in daylight. There's a local country and western station on the radio called Bigfoot FM. All the songs are about trucks, working hard and having happy families. I never knew life was that simple.

I visit a nice wetland reserve next to the Gray's Harbour area. There are quite a few shorebirds on the mid flats. I'm joined by a couple and we discuss dowitcher identification! It turned out that they were on the pelagic yesterday, so I am treated to a lost of all the species I missed. Nice. Four lifers to be precise, but.nothing spectacular though. " so you were the Scottish guy who didn't show ". Yep, that was me alright. They give.me some tips on places to go. Many of these are part of my itinerary for today and no, I don't want to try and see bar-tailed godwit or Eurasian wigeon. They give some tips on how to find varied thrush, including correcting my impression of their call.

I go.to.a.place. called Ocean Shore and scramble along the rocky breakwater where I hope there will be some tattlers. The waves are splashing the rocks making them slippy. I find some black turnstones and settle down to scope the rocks. I get a quick look at what I'm sure must be a tattler bit it disappears. I wait 10 minutes as the splashing waves get closer to me. Eventually it appears again. In fact there are two of them. At last, I feel that my birding luck is changing.

Surf scoters in the surf off Ocean Shore

I drive up to Qualcot lakes where there are supposed to be varied thrushes. Again it looks like good habitat, but I've thought that before. I pay the full amount in the permit envelope this time. It must have worked, because 10 minutes later I'm watching a varied thrush I flushed from the trail. It Skua on a branch watching me watching it. The deep chocolate brown of its plumage is punctuated by pale orange wing bars and throat and a richer orange supercilium. All this against the setting of a misty, lush forest complete with lichen-covered tree branches and moss hanging from twigs. That was a special moment, made all the sweeter for the many miles I walked searching for one of these.

I start driving back toward Seattle, and stop at a site potentially for rufous hummingbird. There are no flowers out, and I conclude its going to be too late, unless I can find a feeder. I find a motel and start organising my bags for the return flight tomorrow.

I'm not sure if Air France are going to ne happy about me getting off in Paris instead of travelling through to Aberdeen as per my tag. It seems ridiculous, but it probably messes up their fare rules. We'll see.

Walking in Olympic Park

I decided to take advantage of the extra time and go for a short hike in Olympic National Park at Hurricane Ridge. Supposedly there are varied thrushes here plus a few other interesting upland birds, so I decide to give it a go.

View towards Mount Olympus

I leave Port Angeles in rain and fog and ascend by car until I emerge from the gloom into clear blue skies and bright sunshine above the cloud layer. The walk is good with great scenery. I realise that all that cycling I've been doing means I can walk up some steep slopes with a pack on my back and little effort. I see more American pipits and a golden eagle sweeps by at eye level just 50m away, then it circles for another look - truly spectacular. Eagles that try that kind of stunt in north-east Scotland generally don't last very long. I also get a good look at an American kestrel.



American kestrel and cute chipmunk chewing on a seed pod

I still can't get out of my head how I messed up the pelagic date and how my usual checking system didn't spot the problem. What did I do wrong? I put it down to me being punished for not putting enough money in the envelope for a hiking permit at the reserve at Dungeness, and not being honest at the Mexican restaurant to point out that they forgot to charge me for my beer. That's utter nonsense of course.

I go to another forest reserve at Crescent Lake beside Barnes River. One of the rangers at Hurricane Ridge suggested this as a site for varied thrush. It looks very promising with lots of mature wet conifer forest. I walk for two hours through fantastic habitat, past a spectacular waterfall, but still no luck. I'm going to crack this motha f***a if it kills me!

Spectacular waterfall near Lake Crescent

I make the long drive to Westport and go to one of the fish restaurants after checking into my motel. It's packed and I look at people and wonder if any of them were on the pelagic. I wonder what they saw today?

Gutted

Have you ever watched the film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'? Do you remember the moment when Hugh Grant is in the church waiting for his own wedding to "duck-face" and he has just discovered that his true love Carrie, played by Andi MacDowell is separated from her husband, and this is the person he really wants to be with. He goes into a side room in the church and slowly beats his head against the stone wall and says "bugger, bugger, bugger" with such depth and feeling. For me, it's a defining moment in a great film.

There is also a word in the book "The Meaning of Liff" (the book that marries place names with no meaning, with everyday things and phenomena that have no name). I can't remember the place name but remember the phenomenon - when you know something has just gone badly wrong, but you don't know what it is yet. Yesterday, I was thinking that everything is sorted out now between now and when I leave Seattle - what could possibly go wrong now?

Well I just had both of those moments. I woke at 5:30 a.m. in my motel room in Port Angeles, and something made me think about the pelagic birding trip I've organised. Isn't that due to go on 18th? Isn't that today? Checking the booking confirmation, it certainly is today, and I'm in Port Angeles and the boat leaves from Westport, which is at least 4 hours drive away.

I'm feeling completely gutted. That boat trip was going to be the highlight of my trip and I've screwed up. I've had a month since I booked this thing for the penny to drop and I could have done something about it, even last night. I doubt there's much chance of getting a refund given this is completely my own fault, and they won't have had a chance to get a reserve at this late notice.

Oh well, there are plenty of other things I could do instead.

Dungeness spit

I wake early. I need to sort a few things out. I book a motel for the night before the pelagic trip in Westport, sort out some money and work out my route for the next few days. Finally, I check out and go to pick up my hire car.

I've decided to take a ferry across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island. At $15 for me and the car, I sense we're getting back to sensible prices (the Canadian dollar is quite strong now, so there aren't any bargains to be had over there just now). As you get off the ferry, you realise you've left the hustle of the big city behind and entered the rather well-heeled island community. Of course they're probably all so rich they can afford to commute daily to Seattle.

The impressive Seattle skyline from the ferry

I drive to the Dungeness area. Like its namesake in England, it is a spit made of sand and shingle, with more emphasis on the former. The spit is a long and narrow, and projects into Juan da Fuca Sound close to the southern tip of Vancouver. It's a calm day with the sun trying to force its way through the occasional fog and cloud.

Dungeness Spit and Vancouver Island (far)

Olympic National Park in background

Once again, I don't see a huge amount, but its an enjoyable day's birding. The most interesting additions to the trip list was a couple of American pipits at the end of the day. They showed exactly why they are called buff-bellied pipits, with their quite rich buff underparts, contrasting with a much greyer back. They have pure white outer tail feathers, giving away that they are related to water pipit.

I stay in a cheap, but very comfortable motel in Port Angeles, and have a substantial Mexican meal nearby - they forgot to charge me for my beer, so I give them a bigger tip.

On my own again

We wake early and do some birding at Lake Somenos nearby. It's a bit more lively here, though not much more. I manage to pick out a Lincoln sparrow. Hurrah, a full blown lifer, though it didn't exactly knock my socks off! We add a few more birds to the trip list, including a moulting drake wood duck.

We then drive round to Swartz Bay where the ferry leaves for Vancouver. After a great breakfast at a cafe in the nearby marina, I drop off Martin for his return journey and we say our farewells.

I take the car along the coast road down to Victoria, stopping off at a number of locations to take in the view and do some birding. It's a very nice stretch of coast, with fantastic panorama views across to the gulf islands. It's pleasantly mild and the sea is flat calm. I manage to see a few new birds. Perhaps the highlight is two Sandhill cranes flying along the coast. There are a few other new spec ies for the trip, though all are fairly common, and to be expected. A wasp managed to sneak inside my shirt and start to sting me. The first was the most serious, but the others had relatively little venom in them. Other occupants in the car park in the rather refined Oak Bay must have been put off their prosciutto and mozzarello do buffalo foaccaci at the sight of a shirtless Andy swiping at a long-gone wasp!

Not a Lincoln's sparrow, but a song sparrow

A group of harlequin ducks in Oak Bay

I drop off the hire car and wander around town for one last time, picking up a map and other bits and pieces, while the heavens opened on Victoria. The ferry is delayed and full of excited American football fans from Nebraska. They are converging on Seattle for a big college game, and there to support the Huskers. I get to my hotel at midnight - two hours later than planned. US immigration is a breeze from Canada on the ferry. The hotel is rather good - the Mediterranean Inn - a little outside the centre, but all easily accessible.

Wet Wet Wet

Today, Martin and I went walking in the woods.

We started at the lighthouse again and did the circuit, bumping into Mark Newell there. We didn't see an awful lot - nearly all the migrant birds from the previous two days had cleared out, and the bushes around the light were pretty quiet. There was still quite a bit of wildfowl passage offshore - mainly surf scoters (and mostly drakes as well). We did, however, see a greylag goose fly over. Still not sure if this was a genuine vagrant and if we should have initiated a rare bird alert.

After a hearty breakfast at a nearby breakfast joint, and we checked out, we went for a walk in a different bit of coastal woodland. We didn't see much here, and the varied thrush I wanted to see eluded me once again. We did manage a brown treecreeper which was new for the trip. Perhaps the best thing I saw (Martin missed this) was when we first arrived at a viewpoint. I raised my binoculars to a spot offshore, and instead of seeing grey sea and a few waves, I got a face full of humpback whale. It had clearly done a lunge feed and launched half of its body clear of the water. So what I could see was the upper half of the underside of its body (all those ridges), part of its pectoral fins and water surging from the side of its huge mouth. It surfaced again and lofted its tail fluke into the air. Then we didn't see it again until much further offshore. WOW!!!!!

We walked for ages trying to see a varied thrush. But it started to rain, and didn't stop all day, so we got pretty wet and dis-spirited. We drove much of the way back to Victoria, stopping at potential places for varied thrush. All of these with no luck. We found an OK motel in Duncan and had a not very interesting meal at a family diner.

Will I go through my entire journey in Canada without seeing a single lifer?

Do bears shit in the woods?

We get up early and travel back to Amphitrite Point for more birding. Except it is foggy with limited visibility. We see a few additional species, including Macgillivary's and Wilson's warblers. We bump into Stefan Garthe and Philip Schwemmer who were both at the conference. They say they've seen a varied thrush, which is high on my hit list. How very dare they!

Steller's Jay

No luck with the varied thrush, so we continue on our way and visit some interesting boggy area and some virgin rain forest. The latter site seemed to reek of decay. The boardwalk weaved a way through the permanently wet forest, among rotting trees and talls stands of cypress, hemlock and what looks like leylandii. We bump into the German contingent again at each of these sites.

In the Pacific Rim virgin rainforest

We continue up to Tofino where there are mud flats. The town is very commercial, aimed at tourists. We see Stefan and Phillip there again! There is a small viewing platform overlooking the mudflats. We bump into Shane Wolseley from Northern Ireland (he is organising the BTO Atlas there). There are a few distant waders there - most likely Western sandpipers, but who knows at that range. A young bald eagle flies into a tree and makes quite a racket. We don't see much in the way of shorebirds.

Martin overlooking the Tofino mud flats

Our last port of call is to the Thornton Creek salmon hatchery, where they have been trying to augment the local salmon stocks. Its a drive along a rough track, but has a reputation for being a good place to watch black bears, when the salmon start to run.

When we arrive, there is a black bear in the river bed. It spots us and slowly ambles off up the bank and disappears into the vegetation. I walked along the boardwalk and onto a narrow bridge over the river to take a photo of the waterfall. Unbeknown to me, another black bear is ambling down the bank, and I see it just 20m away walking toward me and the bridge. I retreat back onto the boardwalk, facing it, and let it do its thing. This bear clearly is used to humans. It spends its time plonking its bum into the stream (is this what bears do when they want to go to the toilet, but are too shy to do it in the open? In fact it is panting, and seems to be using the river to cool off. We get amazing looks at this bear - just us and nobody else. It finally climbs up onto the same side of the river bank as us, onto the boardwalk and ambles away. Truly amazing.

Nice cascade, but what else is there to look out for?

Just as we are about to depart, the Germans arrive, and we grip them off with our bear photos.

In the evening, after an average Chinese meal, we bump into Mark Newell from CEH and Matt Parsons. They are teamed up for their travelling around this part of Vancouver Island.

Drive to Ucluelet

I pack my bags, check out and meet with Martin Heubeck. We're going to drive over to the west side of Vancouver Island and spend a few days birding together. We pick up a hire car and set off on the journey. I'm tired, but manage to stay alert for the driving. The dirve would have been really pretty, except there was low cloud and occasional rain for most of the way. We manage to see two black bears crossing the road in front of us. Wow!

We found a motel in Ucluelet, and decide to take a walk around the lighthouse at Amphitrite Point, which is the southernmost part of the peninsula. We see a few migrants, such as yellow and the amazing Townsend's warblers. There were Swainson's and hermit thrushes grovelling in the undergrowth. Offshore we see 5-6 humpback whales and two bald eagles feeding in the sea nearby. Also we see a couple of marbled murrelets, and a steady stream of divers and scoters migrating offshore.

Coastline around Amphitrite Point

Kayaking around Oak Bay

Today, with the conference finished, I went on one of the organised post-conference trips. There was a seabird and whale pelagic trip, which didn't look too exciting. I decided to go kayaking; something I haven't really done before (excluding some river canoeing I did as a kid), but am told you can approach wildlife very closely and I thought it would be something good to do around Portlethen. Marischal (the conference organiser) took us to the launch point. He's an interesting guy. His family is from Broughty Ferry originally. He used to pronounce his name the Aberdeen way (i.e. Marshall), but has been forced to pronounce it as spelled because it confused too many people.

Six of us paddled out, plus the guide. We were in tandem kayaks - I was teamed up with a guy from New Brunswick on the Canadian east coast called Dave. He has done a bit of kayaking before, so that was helpful for me as a novice. It was drizzling with rain most of the time.

We paddled to some islands, where there were common seals, and some cute river otters. We also saw a grey whale pass behind us. All around the islands there were moulting harlequin ducks - not as smart as they could be, but still amazing to see them. There were black turnstones and surfbirds on the shoreline, and a couple of belted kingfishers.

The intrepid paddlers

I survived the day pretty well. It even brightened up, and we could see across to the mainland. My shoulders were a bit sore by the end of the day, as were my feet from steering the rudder. I figure my swimming must have helped my shoulders.

In the evening, I met up with Martin Heubeck and Kees Camphuysen for a meal and a drink. We go into Chinatown and have an amazing meal!



Harlequin ducks and black oystercacher

Final day of conference

I woke up to a beautiful day, so after a working breakfast with Scott Schaffer, I take a few photos in town around the harbour. It's an attractive small city, probably about the same size as Aberdeen.






Today, all theworkshops have to report back to the plenary session of the main conference. Scott Shaffer and I present the at-sea and tracking workshop outcomes.

In the evening it's the closing banquet. A lot of people get into the hall for the meal, which is OK, but not worth the $70 price tag. There are the usual announcements in which people are thanked. Mark T gives the results of the student poster and presentation awards. Irritatingly, he awards first prize for posters to a pretty blond undergraduate, and remarks on a displayed photo of her next to her poster that "beautifully put together". Accidental, I think. David Irons receives a standing ovation to thank him for all his hard work in making the conference happen. He gives an acceptance speech in which hr is clearly choked.

A pastiche 1970's Canadian rock band provide the entertainment. This conference's theme, other than the usual loud shirts, is wearing a tie around your head as a head band. Hmmm.

Day 3 of the conference

Wow, that was a really good sleep!

I'm giving my talk today about the experience of getting the two big Special Protection Areas classified in Liverpool Bay and the Outer Thames Estuary. I'm much calmer now after getting the first workshop out of the way. That's a bit worrying, because I need some adrenaline to help me perform for my talk. I've got a total of 20 minutes to get my point across, and I know I've got too much material.

Linda gives a talk just before mine on the offshore SPAs, and does another solid job. My turn now, and it goes well. I focus on how this is a real life scientific solution created under extreme pressure. There seemed to be quite a few extra people turn up, which is quite flattering. I run short of time at the end, and I have to rush some of the more complex slides toward the end, but I manage to leave enough time for a question at the end. It's a good one, about how you can use the the legislation to protect their prey fish in finding a solution, including dealing with their migration outside the boundary. I think I give a good answer about how a plan or project outside the boundary could trigger protective measures based on the protective requirements of the species within the boundary.

We have to prepare some material for another workshop which about combining analyses from a global at-sea seabird database with a similar tracking database. I'm co-convening this with Cleo Small from Birdlife International. We both feel shattered, but manage to pull together an agenda. It goes well. The presentations are all really focused and it has much more of a workshop feel about it, rather than a talk-shop. Lots of exchange of interesting ideas of how to overcome the analytical challenges of viewing these different datasets. Poor Cleo is shattered, and asks me if I can chair the discussion session. I do what I can, and feel the discussion dry up a bit at times, but it goes OK, and people seem happy with how it went.

I go for a drink after the poster paper session, and both Linda (who talked some more about her tern tracking work) and James Grecian made a point about how helpful they found the workshop. That was really nice of them to say so.

Kees Camphuysen and Jim at the poster session

Day 2 of the conference

I realise I have entered into some kind of battle with my maid (that sounds sooo decadent!). I realise for two mornings running, I have thrown out my old disposable razor, and she has put it back neatly beside the wash basin (that's the one in my main bathroom of course). I resort to snapping the razor in half.

I went to Linda's presentation on the tern tracking work. She was invited to give her talk, so it's one of the preferred talks. She's as nervous as hell, but of course she does a good job, and I see lots of people nodding their heads, which is a good sign.

I'm feeling a bit better about my workshop. I get a chance to run through things with Kathy Kuletz and I hear about a couple of people who are definitely going to attend. One of the problems I spotted was that there is a clash between my database workshop and another workshop organised on seabird spatial ecology which will take people away from my workshop.

It goes well. Some big players attend my workshop and apart from a couple of the giving presenters going off-script, it is well received and everyone really positive about the idea of data sharing, and many sign up to get involved in developing things further. Ben Best from OBIS-Seamap is really helpful and says lots of really good things.

I went for something to eat with Jim, Kees Camphuysen, Martin Heubeck. I fall asleep before my food arrives, and then again afterwards. I must have been shattered.

Day 1 of the conference

After the social held at the BC Museum last night, today seemed to go by in a whirl. We started with the opening presentations by the great and the good, which included a video presentation by Prince Charles (he's a passionate supporter of the Save the Albatross Campaign). The conference is organised in five parallel sessions, so people charge about between different halls, so many of the 850 or so delegates charge off at the end of each talk to see the next one they've marked off on their agenda.

I'm heavily involved in what are called the Legacy Workshops, designed to link up different databases around the world using the internet and through clever technology, create what would appear as a World Seabird Database. We hear the first of these presentations and the discussion of how this might progress. I'm starting to feel quite nervous about my workshop and how it's all going to go tomorrow.

Ferry to Vancouver Island

I woke early and took a cab to the ferry terminal. Steve Votier was there - his intended boat-plane trip to Victoria was cancelled because of bad weather. I don't think he was disappointed to be going on the boat, however.

It was a dull overcast morning with the threat of drizzle hanging over us as we steamed up Puget Sound. This was a fast (30 knots) catamaran-type ferry, so we didn't get much time to look at things. But occasionally we got good looks at things. By the end of the trip, we had seen a considerable selection of seabirds and cetaceans. The highlights were a fork-tailed storm-petrel, 2 pink-footed shearwaters, a northern fulmar (dark one), plenty of tufted puffins, rhinocerous auklets, grey phalaropes, a couple of red-necked grebes and a killer whale. It was worth getting cold for.

I'm staying at the Fairmont Empress - special rates for conference-goers, but plush all the same. After checking in at the hotel and also registering at the conference, I went up to my room. They upgraded me to a suite. Bloody heck, that only ever happens to other people, not me. The room has quite a good view (not of the harbour, sadly). The bed is wider than it is long. There are two TVs in the suite and two bathrooms for some reason. I think I'm going to enjoy retiring to my quarters.

My bedroom and my drawing room

Night view from my room

In the evening, there was a reception held at the Vancouver museum. Lots of food and drink among lots of native American historical items. Good fun.

Sleepless in Seattle

After a 4:30 am start from home (thanks for the lift George, you're a Toff). I took Air France from Aberdeen to Paris, then a rapid transfer for their flight to Seattle.

I've heard dire things about Air France's record with luggage during transfers, and also about the long queues for immigration at Seattle. None of these proved the case, and my luggage and I staggered into the arrivals hall at 1pm, about 1 hour after landing. Note to anyone who's planning a trip in the future - the ESTA system for immigration means you don't have to fill out a white landing card during the flight like you used to (but you still have to fill out the customs form), even though Air France told everyone to do this. The immigration person simply tore up my neatly filled-out white card. He was friendly too, unlike previous experiences. I met up with a few other folks who were on the same flight as me, including Steve Votier and Henri Weimerskirch.

Because of my low expectations for a speedy turnaround at the airport, I pre-booked a hotel to stay a night there and catch the ferry the following morning to Victoria. I took an electric train into Seattle (only $2.50, quick and efficient - cheaper than the short bus journey from Aberdeen to Torry!). While waiting for my room to be ready, I took a wander around the Pioneer Square area in the half-drizzle - quite interesting. I stumbled upon the Pike Street Farmers Market, which was fantastic. I'll upload some photos when I get a chance. It was a sea of people, colour and smells, with fresh fish stalls, arts and crafts and lots of flower sellers (substantial bunches at $5 each).






I ate at a Brazilian restaurant, but my body was starting to shut down - it took just one caiparihna, so I returned to the hotel and sleep.

Of course, my body was getting ready to wake up again and at 3 a.m. I ended up doing some work on my presentations, re-organising my luggage etc ready for my early morning ferry to Canada.

Andy is travelling again

I’ve decided to resume my blog while on my travels.

 

I am attending the inaugural World Seabird Conference at Victoria on the island of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. I have decided to add on some extra days at the end of the conference to see something of Vancouver Island (it’s supposed to be beautiful, and should be interesting for birds on migration) and also do a quick tour of Washington state over the border in USA.  I’ll finish the trip with a couple of days in Paris, where I’ll meet with George to help him celebrate a significant birthday.  This conference is going to be far from play time, although I hope to enjoy myself as much as I can.  I am presenting a paper to the conference about protected areas at sea for seabirds.  I am also co-organising two different workshops, the first about amalgamating databases for seabird surveys at sea, and the other about combining information from these types of databases with those from satellite tracking studies.  I hope to keep you appraised of what happens over the next 2 ½ weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

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