Ray:
>My wife and I arrived at Toke Point around 3:30 yesterday. I was unable
>to spot the Bar-tailed Godwit for sure (I had a good candidate in a flock
>of about 150 Marbleds, but just didn't get all the parts to add up
>positively before a female Harrier did her thing).

This particular bar-tailed is very obvious - much, much paler than
the marbleds with a very obvious white supercilium. Solid white
underneath, and grey-brown above (grey-black feathers with rufous
edging, it appears to me in my photos). Streaking is very faint
on the upper breast/neck. I first saw it with my bare eyes from
a couple hundred feet away - that's how much paler it was. Much
paler than I expected from descriptions/drawings.

> There was, however, a
>Long-billed Curlew between the two piers that Don baccus had mentioned
>last week.

Cool!

>[my life count of Marbled Godwits went from 8 to 500
>yesterday really quickly]). Enjoy!

That is a really fine flock of marbled godwits, I was enjoying
myself tremendously even when I thought I was going to miss the
bar-tailed.

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