Our ship has finally come in.  We headed out to bird this morning after breakfast, and the first thing we saw was the Puk-uk on the horizon.  So we are now on the way to Attu. 

The seabirding has been fairly good.  On the southend of Little Tanaga Strait, we saw thousands of Whiskered Auklets.  We also saw the other three _Aethia_ auklets to complete the grandslam.  There was also a few possible Cassin’s Auklets, but we didn’t get confirmation on that. 

We began to pick up Laysan Albatrosses along the south side of Kagalaska Island.  At times 4 or more were flying around the boat.  Then approaching Adak Strait, the number of tubenoses, particularly Fulmars began to build.  It was dinner time, so most of us were down below when Kirk Zufelt started shouting something unintellegible.  We wondered if it was an emergency or a good bird and decided he was yelling too loud for it to be an emergency.  It had to be a good bird, and it was.  Kirk saw a near-adult Short-tailed Albatross pass near the back end of the boat.  By the time the rest of us got up there, it was pretty far behind the boat.  It then passed us very far off the port side.  Identifiable looks, but the rest of us are hoping for something better.