On Wednesday, July 9, 30 folk enjoyed a joint Langley, WRSN, Delta Naturalists’ Club outing on the Salish Sea boat, cruising among the San Juan Islands. We all met at the Bellingham port for the 9:00 a.m. departure, then spent the next 8 hours at sea, returning at 5:oo p.m.
It was a gorgeous sunny day, with only a brief fog patch hampering our views, but it only lasted about a half hour before rising. Our target bird was the Tufted Puffin, and we saw lots of them, mostly near where they nest on historic Smith Island. We saw lots of other species too, including “pelagics” Rhinoceros Auklets, Pigeon Guillemots, one Common Murre, Marbled Murrelet. Also saw Heermann’s Gulls, three Cormorant species Brandt’s (most common), Pelagic and Double-crested (least common). Bill, Marion, Anne Gosse and others took some super photos which you can enjoy on our DNCB Picasa site. Pauline and Anne did a wonderful job organizing this outing for the three clubs. This is an abbreviated report in hopes that others might write something.
Wednesday, July 16 we will be going to Pitt Polder/Lake. Leave Petra’s at 7:30 am, arrive at parking lot ~ 8:30 am. Map of meeting place here.
Tom Bearss, President, Delta Naturalists’ Society
Delta Naturalists Society 
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