Today (Friday) is a "home day", so I thought I'd add onto my notes from yesterday. On my way home, I stopped at Big Bubba’s Burgers in Allyn for a
Blue-cheese Burger and a Blackberry shake - $11.70. I took the meal down to the Port of Allyn
waterfront park to eat my lunch, then walked out on the pier to scan the
North Bay of Case Inlet.
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| Not a Real Great-Horned Owl |
Most of the
birds there were gulls, allowing a person to sort through a small flock at close
range. It helps if there’s an offering
of hamburger bun or stale French fries!
Mostly Glaucous-winged Gulls
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| Second-cycle Glaucous-winged Gull |
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| Third-cycle Glaucous-winged gull |
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| First-year Gull. Fairly dark plumage, so I don't know if it's a Glaucous-winged Gull, a Western Gull, or one of our "Olympic Gull" hybrids |
While I was out there, I got talking to one of the
locals, and asked him about the derelict boat anchored just north of the pier.
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| The Scamper - derelict vessel |
The name on the stern is the Scamper, out of Vancouver,
B.C. He said that a guy had been living
on board until January 4, 2017, and substances may have been an issue. That night, he and a friend apparently had a
discussion. The owner? friend? (I wasn’t
certain), 31-year-old Andrew Aldrich, got into his little kayak and paddled
toward shore early in the morning “to get some tools”. His overturned boat was found on the beach
the next day. The Coast Guard and
Sheriff searched, but the body was found and recovered on Friday February 17th
by another kayaker. Of course, Aldrich hadn’t
been wearing a life jacket. The guy I was
talking to said he was the one who recovered the body - “just part of a day’s
work”… We should give Kudos to those who serve the
Public by dealing with the seamier and sorrier side of Life.
The Port of Allyn came into possession of the vessel when
Aldrich’s brother asked if he could moor it for a short period at the Allyn
Dock, with the promise it would be moved that weekend. He never returned to retrieve it, and
numerous attempts to reach him, or anyone else in the family, were
unsuccessful. The Port then contacted
the Department of Natural Resources, which has aquatic jurisdiction in such
situations. The DNR took possession of it under the
state’s “Derelict Vessel” statue.
Aldrich’s father was finally able to be reached on the last day of a
30-day window for someone to claim ownership of the vessel. He agreed to
relinquish any and all claims of ownership, which cleared the way for both the
auction, and for issuance of a new title once the vessel is sold. The State offered it in March, 2017, but obviously
there have been no takers - since it’s still there - and the DNR has to pump
out the hulk regularly to keep it from sinking.
On the way home, I stopped at Perry Creek to check out
the gulls.
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| Gulls and ducks at the mouth of Perry Creek (Thurston County) |
The chum salmon here are a later run
than those up on the Union River, so there are still ‘fresh’ fish running
upstream. Many of the fish are spawning
just at or above the high-tide line, so there are a LOT of loose salmon eggs
washing downstream to feed the waiting water birds.
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| Gull eating a chum salmon egg |
This draws in a LOT of gulls, including about
275 Glaucous-winged Gulls today.
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| Glaucous-winged Gull adult feeding on chum salmon carcass |
There are also the usual Glaucous-wing X Western hybrids
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| Dark wingtips, dark eye, grey head, pink legs . . . Yep, it's a hybrid |
And, this immature “Thayer’s” Iceland Gull, identified by
the slimmer bill and daintier head. The bird's plumage is pretty 'bleached' but in another pose, the bases of the primaries appear darker. I suppose it could be a "Kumlien's" type, although I'm not experienced with that type of Iceland Gull.
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| Thayer's Gull immature |
Also, a lot of the gulls and ducks are foraging on the
carcasses. Protein is Protein.
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| Mallard Pair |
Note:
Do not eat Mallards hunted from the Puget Sound near shore in November .
. . they will taste as ‘fishy’ as a Merganser!
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| Hooded Merganser Drake |
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