>I spent last week camping at Ocean City and Fort Canby State Parks. Great
>weather, lovely beaches but few signs of migration. Highlights:
>
>OCEAN SHORES AREA - 19th September
>
>American Bittern in the camp site. 200+ Sanderling, 50~ Western Sandpiper,
>2 Common Tern, 6 Semipalmated Plover on the beach at Ocean City. There were
>2 adults and 4 juvenile Semipalmated Plovers so I assume they breed there.

Probably not, Eric. Just an overlap between the two age stages during
migration. An old breeding site at Damon Point, S of Ocean Shores, has not
been occupied for some years.

Your list in the aggregate looks quite good, but the shorebird migration
has seemed especially poor this fall in that area. I've only been down
there once, last Saturday, but we had to work diligently to find 10 species
of shorebirds on the peninsula south of Ocean Shores, whereas when I was
doing so much field work there, 20 species were much more likely in the
last week of September. Your list, from many localities, probably
approached 20 species. We saw no Dunlins, so I suspect their migration
hasn't even begun (some summer at Leadbetter Point). A juvenile Red Knot
and 4 juv. Baird's Sandpipers on the N side of Damon Point were the only
shorebirds even slightly out of the ordinary. A nice flock of 15 Gr.
White-fronted Geese at the pond there, as well as 3 Dusky Canada Geese (and
all too many Great Basin Canada Geese, but few shorebirds.

The breaching of the sand spit at the game range has probably spelled
disaster for that area as a shorebird feeding grounds, as I suspect the
current will wash away all the fine sediments that held food for the birds.
It will be interesting to see what happens, but always a little
disappointing to gather evidence of non-occurrence.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416