Smith Island Boat Trip with ABC for Horned Puffin

Most of the group.

On July 5th 26 other birders and I met Matt Stolmeier, Marian’s nephew, and captain for Outer Island Excursions at the Skyline Marina in Anacortes, WA for a chartered trip on their 30/person boat hoping to see the Horned Puffin that has visited the Tufted Puffin colony on Smith Island for the last few summers. We had tried last summer, and though it was a great trip, failed to see the Tufted Puffin. Matt takes many whale watching tours annually, and also has three scheduled bird watching trips this year planned. You can book one here.
Matt is an excellent spotter, and has several other boats on the water, which turned out to be really a good thing. We left the dock at 4PM, with the hopes that as the evening approached more puffins would be nearing the colony ready to feed their young at dusk. On the ride out we saw moderate numbers of Rhinoceros Auklets, cormorants, gulls and enjoyed the great weather and calm seas.
On arrival at Smith Islands we began to see good numbers of the breeders there.

As you can see Smith Island has the prerequisite soil for burrowing birds like puffins and auklets.

We sorted through dozens of Tufted Puffins like this but for our first couple of hours failed to find the Horned Puffin.

We focused on finding the hoped for Horned Puffin, but for the first couple of hours saw only Tufted Puffins like this

There were hundreds of Rhinoceros Auklets to admire too.

California Gulls were present in small numbers as it’s early for the huge flocks seen later in the summer.

Heermann’s Gulls were seen in good numbers for this early in the summer. This species breeds in the Gulf of Mexico, coming north to feed and molt post breeding.

After looking for a couple of hours Matt suggested we circle the island and check back at the kelp beds later. We saw this pair of Marbled Murrelets on the other side of Smith Island.

We also saw several Common Murres.

As we headed back to the area by the kelp beds where most of the Tufted Puffins were staying Matt got a radio message from one of the captains of another Outer Island Expeditions boat that he had the Horned Puffin in sight. We headed back and after a few minutes of tension, got killer looks and photo ops.
My and most other participants first Washington State Horned Puffin.



Horned and Tufted Puffins for comparison.

After we got long and great looks at the HOPU, Matt offered a treat. He gave us about an extra hour and we headed out to see the T-99 pod of Orcas not far away.
There were 5 Killer Whales in the T-99 pod, a transient pod of marine mammal eating Orcas.

After enjoying the whales, Matt also gave us a nice time at the Williamson Rocks, which is a rocky island near the harbor.
Williamson Rocks

Most of the time we were at the Williamson Rocks up to 8 Black Oystercatchers noisily circled the island and the boat.

A Brown Pelican, uncommon in Skagit County was on the tip of the island.

We got back to the dock about 8 PM with happy faces and expanded state and many life lists.
Be sure to think of Matt if you want a trip to see the birds.

Good birding!