Yesterday morning, April 19th, I attended the beach at Copalis (along
with several thousand other razor clam diggers - don't tell my boss).

The beaches were devoid of shorebirds, there. The only birds seen *on*
the beach were crows and gulls (all the ones I paid attention to appeared
to be hybrid Gl-wing X Westerns - several were toward the dark end of the
spectrum).

The neat observations I had was in looking UP to see 6 or 7 large skeins
of white-fronted geese, in flocks of 150-400. I would estimate having
seen about 1,700 birds in about an hour and a half. It's hard to
estimate bird numbers when one is looking at the sand....

Also, I saw 3 brant flying south over the surf zone - back toward Grays
Harbor?

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
anderjda at dfw.wa.gov