North (Seattle) to Alaska 6/9--GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL, Pigeon Guillemot, Bewick's Wren, Spotted Towhee

We took a cruise to southeast Alaska last week. It left from Seattle in the afternoon, so we had time to explore the neighborhood around our hotel in North Seattle, as well as to look for some birds in the harbor while waiting for the ship to leave.

I thought we had our first lifer of the trip when I saw a crow. According to Sibley's range maps, American Crows are not in the extreme NW corner of the US. Instead, they are "replaced" by the virtually identical Northwestern Crow. Sibley says the only way to to distinguish them is by voice. These crows all sounded somewhere between American and Fish Crows. However, he also adds that American Crows in the Northwest sound different than they do in the rest of the country. Still, I thought the crows we were seeing were good for Northwestern. But, according to eBird, American Crows are present in Seattle and Northwestern Crow is not listed as an option--instead you can opt for American/Northwestern Crow. Having no expert around, that's how I listed them. Getting Northwestern Crow would have to wait. (To 98% of the population, American, Fish, & Northwestern Crows, and probably ravens too, are all simply "crows.")

Walking around the neighborhood we saw common, expected birds & two FOY--a small flock of Bewick's Wrens & a Spotted Towhee singing in a tree. 10 or so years ago this wouldn't have been a new bird since back then it was lumped in with our Eastern Towhee and known as the Rufous-Sided Towhee.
North Seattle
Great Blue Heron  1
Northern Flicker  2
American/Northwestern Crow  20
Black-capped Chickadee  2    Heard
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
Bewick's Wren  5
American Robin  4
European Starling  5
Spotted Towhee  1
Dark-eyed Junco  3
House Sparrow  1


Our first lifer came in the parking lot of a Sam's Club across from our hotel: GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL--a very common bird on the west coast but one we missed last year in California. 


From the ship we could see a large flock of shorebirds on the jetty--judging from what should still be around in June they probably Black Turnstones, but they were so far away I couldn't legitimately call them. 


We did see a Pigeon Guillemot fly by for our first alcid of the trip. In the harbor there were lots more of the Glaucous-winged Gulls--when they're wheeling around in the air they're pretty hard to tell apart from boring old Herring Gulls. 

Seattle from aboard MS Westerdam
Photo: Shari Zirlin