Date: 8/28/26 12:17 pm From: Steve Hampton via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] El Niño effects
We have our usual ~400 Heermann's up here in Port Townsend this summer. No
juveniles at all. I went thru 380 birds this morning -- all adults and a
dozen or so 2nd cycles.
We did have a small surge of Brown Pelicans in early summer. I think over a
dozen photographed on the beach at once in Port Townsend. Again, no
juveniles. They've not hung around.
On Fri, Aug 28, 2026 at 12:02 PM Dennis Paulson via Tweeters <
<tweeters...> wrote:
> Hello tweets,
>
> I’m sure most of you have heard about the unparalleled irruption of
> Elegant Terns into our coastal waters, and maybe you know about the three
> species of boobies that are in our state at present. They are presumably
> fleeing extremely poor feeding conditions off of western Mexico because of
> El Niño.
>
> But I have noticed something quite odd about this year, the
> lower-than-usual numbers of Brown Pelicans and Heermann’s Gulls in our
> waters. We have consistently seen fewer than expected numbers of both of
> these species in trips to the outer coast, and that seems very odd.
>
> I think of both of these southern species as making long flights to the
> Pacific Northwest each summer to take advantage of our more productive
> waters. So why aren’t they here in even greater numbers this summer?
>
> So I’m curious to find out if others have noticed this as well.
>
> Dennis Paulson
> Seattle
>
>
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