Subject: Ocean Shores Nov. 3 (Burrrrrr)
Date: Nov 06 11:34:00 1995
From: Tracee Geernaert - Tracee at iphc.washington.edu



Tweeters;

A friend and I spent Friday at Ocean Shores in high wind but lots of sun.
Birding was pretty good but spotty. We did run into a roosting flock of
5,000+ shorebirds at the end of Butter Clam Road (9am). They were mostly
Dunlin (80%) and Black-bellied Plover(200 birds). We tried in vain to
convert the Black-bellied Plovers into Golden but they would have none of
that. With the exception of the Sanderling (200+ birds), most of these
shorebirds had stopped feeding and were napping high up on the beach. A
flock of 6 Snow Buntings flew over while we were looking at the shorebirds.
Very cool. We also got to see a Merlin stoop the flock of Dunlin. We got
to Bill's Spit at right after high tide. A flock of 24 Least Sandpiper were
feeding in the mud on the marsh side with about 12 Dunlin. There were
Green-winged Teal and American Widgeon in the bay as well as Common
Golden-eye (4 birds). The roost of gulls were mostly Mew, Ring-billed and
half a dozen California Gulls. Damon Point and the sewage ponds were pretty
dry bird-wise. We did see a raptor that was doing that hovering thing that
I've only seen Rough-legged Hawks and American Kestrels do. We were in
bad light so I couldn't tell if it was a Red-tail. Do they hover? It
wasn't a Northern Harrier. We saw one lonely Short-billed Dowitcher on the
pond at Damon Point.

Tracee Geernaert
tracee at iphc.washington.edu