The Birding Year in the Pacific Northwest
October: Seabirds and Rare Birds
Written by Andy McCormick
Andy McCormick, Volunteer and Former Board President of Eastside Audubon
A stiff breeze was blowing the already high sea water up onto the boardwalk at Redondo Beach when we arrived. My colleagues and I are a survey team for the monthly Puget Sound Seabird Survey. With the wind blowing we wasted no time setting up our spotting scope for the 30-minute survey period. We were there to count wintering seabirds.
A flock of 23 Surf Scoters had come in with the high tide and were less than 100 feet from us. We recorded 12 males, black ducks showing an orange bill and a white patch on the back of their head, and 11 females, dark brown with two white dots on the side of their head. Just beyond the scoters were 7 Horned Grebes. The males and females of these black and white birds look the same, so we listed them together. One of our party members called out, “I have three Short-billed Gulls in the water by the shore.” Short-bills are small wintering gulls, and they will be in our area until March. “I see a Rhinoceros Auklet in the distance,” and we logged that as well. Soon a Pelagic Cormorant flew by. A small flock of mixed Barrow’s and Common Goldeneyes were added to the list.
In addition to seabirds, we count Bald Eagles and other raptors. Their presence can influence the behavior of seabirds and skew the count. Fortunately, we did not see one that day. The birds kept us busy for the full 30 minutes. Satisfied that we counted all the birds we could see, we packed up and moved to the second of the two locations we surveyed at Redondo.
PUGET SOUND SEABIRD SURVEY
Our seabird survey team includes a team leader and usually two or three other volunteers. One person tracks the number of male and female birds we observe, another records the compass reading of the position of the bird, and a third measures the distance down from the horizon to the bird with a plastic ruler. Once the data is submitted to the database, the analysis team will use it to plot the location of seabirds around Puget Sound.
The simple tools we use aid over 300 volunteers to monitor about 125 locations around Puget Sound on the first Saturday of the months from October to April. This survey has been conducted annually for over 20 years. Birds Connect Seattle (formerly Seattle Audubon) began the project. Today, the Puget Sound Bird Observatory coordinates all the volunteers and manages all the data.
SALISH SEABIRDS
The survey monitors birds in Puget Sound, which is defined as the southern portion of the Salish Sea, a 270-mile-long inland stretch of marine waters that includes the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Strait of Georgia, and Puget Sound. This area is also known as the Puget Trough, reflecting its origins during the glacial period when enormous ice sheets carved out the depressions which the Salish Sea now fills.
Unlike the frozen north, the warmer waters of the Salish Sea are open all winter and provide a refuge for hundreds of thousands of seabirds which inhabit these waters from October to April and sustain themselves on the richness of life in the Sound. Surf Scoters and Buffleheads dive to feed on herring and their eggs. Black Scoters prefer oysters. Ospreys, Caspen Terns, and Bald Eagles dive for fish from the air. Rhinoceros Auklets, Pigeon Guillemots, and Common Murres, black and white seabirds called alcids, join the scoters in diving for mussels and herring eggs.
Below the intertidal zone, which is refreshed twice daily by the tides, lie stores of clams, mussels, and oysters. Glaucous-winged Gulls will carry an oyster high into the air and attempt to break it by dropping it onto rocks below. Shorebirds such as Western Sandpipers and Greater Yellowlegs work the shoreline foraging for insects, small mollusks, and fish. Surfbirds and Black Turnstones inhabit the Sound’s rocky shores searching for barnacles and snails.
BOREAL FOREST BIRDS
In addition to arriving seabirds, October ushers post-breeding songbirds from the boreal forest of Canada and Alaska into the Pacific Northwest. The boreal forest is named for the cold temperate region below the Arctic. In North America, this forest is made up of black spruce, white spruce, balsam fir, and tamarack trees, and stretches from Newfoundland in the east across northern Canada to central Alaska. The forest also includes berry producing plants such as blueberry and lingonberry in an environment characterized by bogs and streams. The thousands of miles of wild forest is the great incubator habitat for millions of neotropical migrating birds, shorebirds, and many species of raptors.
Some of the earliest fall arrivals are Lincoln’s and Fox Sparrows. By early October they are joined by Yellow-rumped Warblers, Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and near the U.S.-Canada border and east of the Cascades, Rough-legged Hawks. The extent of the southerly migration of an array of finches, small seed-eating birds with strong bills is related to the crop of cones on a variety of evergreen trees in central Canada.
The meat of nuts and seeds, known as nut mast, is a major food source for Pine Siskins, Red and White-winged Crossbills, and Redpolls. A poor cone crop will presage an irruption of finches. An irruption is a sudden or irregular migration that can occur as a widespread outbreak of birds searching for food. Such an event can bring these boreal forest finches to the northern latitudes of the United States. The Finch Forecast Network www.finchnetwork.org. tracks finches each year and predicts where they might go in search of available food. This prediction is used by birders to help them locate finches during the winter.
NIGHT MIGRATION
Unlike an irruption, the regular annual fall migration of birds is stimulated by two main factors, the urge which birds inherit from their ancestors, and by the change in the amount of light available during the day, known as the photoperiod. Birds are guided in their journey by a combination of a sensitivity to the Earth’s magnetic field, observation of landmarks such as waterways and shorelines, and patterns in the stars. Their flight is powered by an amazing ability to fly long distances aided by favorable tail winds. The west coast of British Columbia, Vancouver Island, and the smaller islands in the Strait of Georgia provide routes for huge numbers of birds making their migratory journey.
This tremendous amount of bird activity occurs in the night sky which provides protection for small birds. There is also less variability in the wind on most nights, and the night air stays moist helping flying birds avoid dehydration.
RARE BIRD SEASON
The majority of birds successfully complete their spring and fall migrations each year. However, some birds, usually juveniles, can have difficulty and may fly off course, become lost, or fly in the wrong direction. When they appear in an unexpected location, they are considered to be “vagrant,” that is, a rare occurrence of a bird outside its normal range. Birders become excited to see these rarities. Vagrancy in birds has several causes. For example, within the boreal forest many species of birds share territory and as they stage for migration, some young birds can associate with a different species and after flying with the new group end up in a novel location. In 2012, a Bar-tailed Godwit, a Eurasian species, migrated south with a flock of Marbled Godwits and spent the winter in Tokeland, WA instead of the usual wintering grounds on an island in the southwest Pacific Ocean.
Wind drift caused by storms also plays a role in moving birds off course and ultimately to new places. Researchers have concluded that some birds inherit or develop physical problems which interfere with their navigation resulting in a misdirection in their flight route. A very small deviation in direction near the top of the globe can result in a greater distance in the wrong direction the farther the birds travels from the pole. A bird such as a Red-flanked Bluetail, a Eurasian flycatcher, which breeds in Kamchatka, Russia would typically migrate west and south from there. However, if it flies east, it will find its way to the Aleutian Islands. A few bluetails have also been seen in British Columbia and Washington. This phenomenon occurs so frequently that the bluetail and other Eurasian bird species such as the Siberian Accentor, Bluethroat, Northern Wheatear, and Stonechat are often included in North American bird field guides.
FALL BIRDING
October weather in the Pacific Northwest can be variable but many days are still excellent for birding. Some birders even enjoy stormy days which can bring an unexpected bird onshore. Birders who follow migration closely watch weather patterns to track storms and to see when the wind will be favorable for bird flight.
New and active birders do not have to go to these lengths to enjoy fall birding. There are many birds on the move, and getting out for some regular birding is the best way to improve your birding skills. Consider participating in a regular bird survey or choose a location or patch you like, visit it once a month or every week if you have the time. Soon you will become more aware of the changes in the birds that frequent your patch during the year. There is a lot to see in October. Go birding and see and hear birds for yourself!
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Weidensaul, Scott (1999). Living on the Wind: Across the hemisphere with migratory birds. New York: North Point Press.
Williams, David. B (2022). Homewaters: A human and natural history of Puget Sound. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
For information on the Puget Sound Seabird Survey see https://www.pugetsoundbirds.org/about-psss
Photo Credit by Mick Thompson