I agree entirely with Gene Hunn's assessment of the situation. He and
numerous others in the state have spent a lot of mental energy trying to
pinpoint such hot spots for migrants, and physical energy visiting those
suspected of being good candidates. I would say without hesitation that
there are many places in WA that are worthwhile checking for migrants, both
regular and rare. There are willow groves in the Columbia Basin that I have
found teeming with migrants on a few occasions, but, from all our
experiences put together, the probability of finding something rare (the
Peak Experience that birders seek) at any of them on a given visit is
vanishingly low. Rarities have certainly been found at eastern WA oases and
on small islands such as Tatoosh, for example, where I was amazed to see a
Pygmy Nuthatch in June 1970; Bob Paine claimed to have seen an Eyebrowed
Thrush there years ago, but didn't think anyone would believe him so didn't
write it up. And I agree that Leadbetter Point would be a good place to
look for such birds, but Ralph Widrig, who birded there almost daily for
several years, found only a few such rarities.

The point Gene made is that we are sufficiently out of the migratory
pathway of even wandering "eastern" birds that we just can't expect to find
that many, so there is a strong "needle in a haystack" element here. This
is exacerbated in western WA, which is virtually entirely forested, but it
still has patches of woods at tips of peninsulas that "look good." Many
places with great potential--Washtucna, Ocean Shores, Point Roberts, the
Davenport cemetary, etc.--have come up negative again and again when
checked, and only every once in a while has something shocking turned up.
Is this enough reason to call these places "migrant traps?" I don't think
so. We don't seem to have any place in WA as productive of migrants as the
southern OR oases such as Fields and the Malheur NWR headquarters, and I
have long thought this was a product of latitude, not attitude.

Dennis Paulson
dpaulson at ups.edu