A short, fun, 4-hour pelagic this morning (Sunday, May 7), from Newport to 16 miles off Yaquina Head. Seas were very nice: gentle 5 foot swells and no wind waves.

East winds the previous few days must have blown the seabirds out farther-we didn't have many. We were finally getting close to giving up seeing any albatrosses when two finally came in to the chum slick: one each BLACK-FOOTED and LAYSAN ALBATROSS! There are only 5 previous May sightings of Laysan Albatross (plus two beached birds). Only in June are there fewer records.

The Laysan is NOT the rare bird, though. That distinction belongs to an adult FRANKLIN'S GULL in bright breeding plumage at the chum, 16 miles off Yaquina Head! This is during their spring migration period when a few vagrants are found on the coast or in the Willamette Valley. This may be, however, the first at-sea record of Franklin's Gull in Oregon.

On our return we visited the Yaquina Head seabird colony, which accounts for most of the murres, guillemots, and cormorants. There was a steady migration along shore of Pacific and Red-throated Loons. On my drive home, I stopped at Boiler Bay where hundreds of Pacific Loons and a couple dozen Red-throated Loons migrated north in a 15 minute period (and one Gray Whale).