by Bob Boekelheide

In place of the former Bird Sightings column, Bob is exploring data from OPAS Community-Science Projects. If you are interested in local bird sightings, check out eBird at https://ebird.org/explore, then under "Explore Regions" enter Clallam or Jefferson County. Please join eBird and add your own sightings, as well.

One of the most overlooked bird migrations in the Pacific Northwest is happening right now, right on our doorstep. Hundreds of thousands of birds participate in this migration, but most people don't even notice. The birds aren't songbirds that migrate surreptitiously under the cover of darkness. The birds aren't shorebirds that hide out on beaches and mudflats, only visible with expensive optics. No, these birds are easy to see, bold and boisterous, flying right in front of our noses during broad daylight.

I'm talking, of course, about California Gulls (CAGU). The incredible post-breeding migration of CAGUs is one of the most unappreciated bird movements in the Pacific NW, perhaps because they are just "seagulls." This time of year CAGUs line coastal river mouths, spits, mudflats, beaches, log yards, breakwaters, and parking lots. They are scrappy little beggars that look askance at your lunch one moment, then become the main component of pelagic feeding flocks at the continental shelfbreak the next.

*Adult California Gull in late August. Photo: Bob Boekelheide*

Two OPAS community-science projects show the timing of CAGU migration very well. First, from 2014 to 2018, OPAS cooperated with North Olympic Salmon Coalition to count birds as part of the Three Crabs Restoration Project. Remember the old Three Crabs restaurant? Our goal was to see if the project caused any changes to bird populations using habitats near the mouth of Meadowbrook Creek, including birds on the mudflats visible from Three Crabs Beach. OPAS volunteers counted birds three times each month within 10-day periods, adjusting our counts for time of day, tides, and weather.

Learn much more about California Gulls by visiting the Dungeness Data page on the OPAS website, where you can view more photos and read “Wish they all could be California Gulls” in its entirety.