It was great to get out today straight from the 8AM service, and we headed for Purdy with target species of Common Murre, White-winged Scoter, Heermann’s Gull, and Ancient Murrelet. Purdy was pretty quiet, and our next stop at the Fox Island Bridge gave nice looks at lots of birds, but none of the above species. From there we headed to the sand spit at the end of Fox Island, called the Tacoma DeMolay Sandspit Reserve. I didn’t know about this spot until Bruce Labar and Bill Tweit posted their e-bird list from yesterday so I headed there in hopes of COMU and WWSC that they had yesterday. The WWSC were just about the closest birds, with a small flock of 4 SUSC and 4 WWSC seen immediately. After scanning through at least 30 Pigeon Guillemot I finally found a single COMU far off to the left on the water. I also saw a lone Cassin’s Murrelet fly all the way across the spit and continue flying out of sight. They have been unusually frequently seen in the last 10 days on the sound.
From there Kay and I decided to have our picnic lunch on the pier at Titlow Beach. Sunshine, calm winds, and a very obliging Heermann’s Gull perched on one of the posts made lunch very nice.

Overall a wonderful sunny day for late October. Not as exciting as the hoped for Westport Seabirds Pelagic trip that was cancelled for today due to high seas, but still pretty nice.