Birding Extravagnaza

One of the main reasons we got the Guillemot was to search for birds on the water (commonly called Pelagic birding - although strictly speaking pelagic refers to the open ocean off shore, and we are mainly in Puget Sound). In any case there are birds who seldom if ever come on land, and the only way to see them is to be on the water. On our trip to Marrowstone last weekend, we saw lots of Pigeon Guillemots (our namesake bird), as well as several groups of Common Murres, just changing to their winter plumage. Nan got a nice shot of one:

But the best birds were the Jaegers.

On Saturday, as we came around Point-No-Point, we found a Parasitic Jaeger on the water. Although they occur with regularity off the coast during fall migration, it was the first time we had seen one in Washington. In fact, I have only seen them a handful of times, in places as far flung as Korea and Finland (one of their arctic breeding grounds). We got a good look and the bird flew off, but i spent the rest of the day going, "Oh Wow. A Parasitic Jaeger. How very cool!"

The next day in the same waters, we stopped to watch a mixed flock of Common Terns and Bonaparte's Gulls feeding. Nancy wanted pictures of the Terns fishing:



Even though the gulls are only slightly larger than the terns, they would often chase after them trying to get them to give up their fish. And that's when the Jaeger came through. Jaeger means hunter in German. and the Parasitic describes their hunting habits. They are (at least during migration) kleptoparasitic - they chase after smaller birds and force them to disgorge their fish. They are big and extremely agile.

The Jaeger came barreling through the flock of terns and gulls (themselves fast fliers) and chased them until they decided it made more sense to give up the fish than be harassed any more. This all happened at high speeds right over the boat. I think it's incredible that Nan manged to get any photographs. Then the Jaeger would go away, eat his prize and come back again. We watched 3 or 4 passes through the feeding flock, It was absolutely amazing.