I took a class to Bowerman for the noon high tide on Wednsday the 26. We
saw quite a bit: western sandpipers and dunlin in the 1000's,
semipalmated plovers in the 100s, shortbilled dowitchers and redknots,
scattered greater yellowlegs and blackbellied plovers, a few dozen
caspian terns, red-breasted mergansers, green-winged teal, large flocks
of geese overhead. The most exciting time was several passes at the
mixed dunlin/western sandpiper flocks by an extremely dark (alomost pure
black from a distance) merlin. After missing out on a meal, the merlin
was chased by the terns. The merlin seemed offended by this attention,
and made a point of going back to shake the terns up a few more
times-perhaps just to flaunt its flying skills. Most of the terns seemed
to be paired off. A large group of Elma high school freshman arrived
just in time to see this show, and I was persuaded by their teacher to
tell them a little about what was going on and why these birds were
here. Most impoortantly, many of these students had interesting
observations and questions.

Things clearly are picking up on the shorebird front!

Jim Neitzel
The Evergreen State College
Olympia Washington