Two quick points.
1) Sanderlings I believe are present in Puget Sound all winter the only
need is to have the appropriate habitat, its my impression that dunlin and
sanderlings are the two most common "flocking" shorebird in the puget
sound during the winter months.
2) Jim's comment about the turnstones and surfbirds seems very believable
based on the fact that Bainbridge not only has a large winter population,
but while riding the ferry during the winter I have actually seen both
Turnstones and Surfbirds perched on debris in the middle of the sound
along the ferry run. I guess in this case you probably would consider this
nontraditional habitat, by the way is their "commute schedule" on 50
minute runs? Sorry couldn't resist!

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA


On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, Jim P. Flynn wrote:

> Hi Tweets,
>
> Kelly McAllister raised the question of whether Sanderlings
> might be seen in the Federal Way beachfront areas. While I can't
> claim to have seen them there I have seen Sanderlings with some
> regularity at Alki beach during the winter as well as at West Pt
> on the Discovery Park shores. It's not that many miles to Federal
> Way and Dumas Bay has more shoreline that's flat and sandy than
> the South Alki beach where i see the Sanderlings most frequently.
>
> On the Alki subject there was about 15 Surfbirds along
> the NE part of the beach (East from Spuds restaurant) and 2 Black
> Turnstones were on the beach around the corner to the SW. I hear
> via the grapevine that the Turnstones may commute from Alki to
> bainbridge where they're seen more frequently - said knowledge
> coming from Russell Rogers via Steve Mlodinow.
>
> Jim Flynn
> Renton, WA
> bf519 at scn.org
>