British Columbia 6/15--BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS, RHINOCEROS AUKLET, CASSIN'S AUKLET

We made a stop in Ketchikan on the 14th, another dreary Alaskan town surviving almost solely on tourism, where we toured a tiny part of the Tongass National Forest on an island that we reached by zodiac boat. In the picture, I'm not that happy & Shari isn't upset.

Eagles were everywhere. I was amused that by now it hadn't occurred to the rest of our tour mates that eagles in Alaska are as common as pigeons in New York. No one (except us) gets tired of seeing them and the guides seem determined to point out every one of them.

After Ketchikan we retraced our route down the west coast the British Columbia islands we'd passed on the way north. Early in the morning I was again taking my vigorous constitutional when I saw a huge bird flying near the boat. I got good looks at its features, particularly its white tail coverts--BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS. Another passenger saw me looking intently at the bird and asked what I was seeing. When I told her a bird she was disappointed--the people on the cruise with binoculars were mostly looking for killer whales another thing that amused me. It isn't like the whale is going to floating on top of the sea like a boat. You see a tail fin, you see the top of the head when it spouts, you see a lot of splashing. Not interesting to me.

Later in the day, Shari was sitting on the veranda when she banged on the glass door to call me. She'd spotted a huge bird sailing almost below our railing. My first reaction was fulmar, but after we looked at the pictures, we realized she had gotten her lifer Black-footed Albatross--this one was a juvenile since it had no white on its tail, but we did see some white on its face, not visible in the photo.

Farther south we began seeing flocks of little black birds too far out to identify, but I was pretty sure they were auklets. I did see one Common Murre fairly decently. Finally we saw two black birds a little closer in than they'd been earlier. Shari took some photos. One bird had a stripe on its face & an orange bill--according to the book Parakeet Auklet, but according to eBird, not there in that season. The only other auklet with a stripe is RHINOCEROUS AUKLET. Floating nearby was another auklet, with a gray bill--this, I'm certain, was the common CASSIN'S AUKLET. I'd sure like to see them better and have the feeling I'm going to be returning to the Pacific Northwest to do so.

We made a brief stop in Victoria. While Shari went to tour the famous Butchart Gardens, which she raved about, I took a long walk from the dock to Beacon Hill Park. Nothing of note there, but I did add a couple of birds to the trip list.
British Columbia

Canada Goose	Ogden Point Breakwater
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS		Aboard MS Westerdam
Glaucous-winged Gull		Juan de Fuca Strait
Common Murre		Juan de Fuca Strait
Pigeon Guillemot		Ogden Point Breakwater
CASSIN'S AUKLET		Juan de Fuca Strait
RHINOCEROS AUKLET		Juan de Fuca Strait
Rock Pigeon		Ogden Point Breakwater
Northwestern Crow		Beacon Hill Park
Common Raven		Beacon Hill Park
Barn Swallow		Ogden Point Breakwater
American Robin		Beacon Hill Park
European Starling		Beacon Hill Park
Song Sparrow		Beacon Hill Park
House Finch		Beacon Hill Park
House Sparrow		Beacon Hill Park