JoLynn (Edwards) and I led twelve Seattle Auduboners on a field trip on
Saturday, August 13. Warm, sunny, calm day. High tide around 10 am.
Itinerary: 7:30 ferry from Mukilteo; So. Whidbey State Park by 8:30;
Crockett Lake about 9:45; Ebey's Landing by 11:45; Kennedy Lagoon and the
Penn Cove mussel dock after lunch; Ft. Ebey State Park after that;
Swantown lagoon about 3:00-4:00, then headed for home across Deception
Pass.

The usual woodland birds at So. Whidbey SP, plus a singing Townsend's
Warbler, a calling Northern Pygmy-Owl, and an active Osprey nest.

Crockett Lake is drying up and most of the water (hence the birds) were out
of range without a long slog through sucking mud which we did not undertake.
Juvenile Least and Western Sandpipers (a few worn adults of the latter),
one Baird's Sandpiper juvenile, some Semipalmated Plovers, both Greater and
Lesser Yellowlegs, very large numbers of Caspian Terns and various gulls
(Bonaparte's, California, Glaucous-winged, a few Ring-billed).

At one or more of the saltwater places, the usual four alcids. Marbled
Murrelets particularly at Ft. Ebey SP, in the kelp beds. Also five
oystercatchers there, and several Harlequin Ducks. Large numbers of Caspian
Terns all along the west shore of the island -- more numerous than any
single species of gull though California Gull was close.

A flock of 35 Black Turnstones near the mussel dock in Penn Cove; two
Whimbrels and several Greater Yellowlegs at Kennedy Lagoon.

Swantown very productive. Least and Western Sandpipers in numbers,
Semipalmated Plovers, Lesser Yellowlegs. Fifteen Red-necked Phalaropes.
Among a total of about thirty silent dowitchers, most of them
unidentifiable because too distant or seen only in flight, one was a ragged
adult Short-billed, three were rather less worn adult Long-billed, and four
were basic-plumaged dowitcher sp. No juveniles of either species that were
closely observable enough to tell. Several hundred Sanderlings, including a
few adults with traces of reddish still on the breast. Black-bellied
Plovers in a range of plumages. And six American Avocets(!).

All in all a comfortably-paced trip with 69 total species.