Well, I went, but I didn't inhale. Rather, I held my breath and
"took" rather than "toked" - two rolls of film of this sucker and
his marbled friends.

Yep, the bar-tailed godwit was still at Tokeland yesterday. Thought
I'd let you all know so you can overrun the place over the weekend.

There where a couple hundred+ marbled godwit roosting on the jetty
opposite the marina/RV park at the end of the spit when I arrived.
I looked for one within the mass that wasn't pinkish-brown, but
no luck. Some marbled godwit were feeding on the mudflat just
by the marina, so after talking to a couple women from Tacoma
who also had not found the bar-tailed, I settled down to photograph
these marbled guys for a bit.

Shortly, the women came dashing back full-tilt in their pickup,
the driver dashed out and started screaming my name. They had
found it and came back to get me so I could shoot it (on film,
I'm no Dennis :)! Which I did, repeatedly (can't do that easily
with shotguns!).

Unfortunately, I arrived after high tide had turned (which must've
been about 11 AM, I estimate) so I had to splurch out a couple of
hundred feet in the tidal muck to shoot them, burying myself at
one point to within about three inches of the tops of my knee-high
rubber boots. So, didn't get within 20 feet as did a previous
poster, but did blast them with Big Bertha and her 2x extender,
1200mm of Canon glass, so got some OK shots. I'll have them back
at 2:30, if they're good I'll share 'em with Russell or whoever
was wanting photos. I'll probably try to get up there next week
if the weather clears to photograph it on a rising tide.

Oh - the weather was gorgeous out there, yesterday, as well. It's
been some time since I've had a life bird in the PNW, and getting
one on a warm Indian summer day on the coast was pretty damned
nice, I tell you!

So, if you're interested in seeing this fella, when you get to
the end of the spit go straight rather than turn left to the
marina. There's a pier with some crab-company structures on
it, and a small public fishing pier as well. Mudflat borders
the road to these two piers on the right - that's where the
bar-tailed was, with about 10 marbled buddies who also disdained
the company of the large flock roosting on the jetty. There were
also four winter-plumaged willet hanging out with them - when I
first saw all these pale birds sans bins for a moment I thought
we'd REALLY hit the jackpot! If it isn't there, of course, hopefully
you'll find it by the marina/RV complex.

This bar-tailed is noticably un-brown in comparison to the
marbled guys, and a bit smaller.


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>