We just returned from a family camping trip to the Greenpoint Campground near
Tofino B.C on the west coast of Vancouver Island. While this was not a
birding trip, I did peek at a few birds.

The campground is in the Long Beach (aptly named too) unit of the Pacific Rim
National Park. Shorebirding was pretty good, with the largest numbers of
birds present as the tide fell (1-2 hours after high tide). Flock sizes were
pretty small, but during those magic hours as the tide fell, the birds were
basically all over the beaches. Birds seen included:

Western Sandpiper - most abundant
Sanderling - also abundant
Least Sandpiper
Semipalmated Plover
Semipalmated Sandpiper - in mixed flocks with all of the above
Baird's Sandpiper - at least one seen
Lesser Yellowlegs - a couple
Killdeer
Black Oystercatcher
Black Turnstone
Wandering Tattler
Surfbird - the last three at the rocks nearest the campground

There were multitudes of California Gull, many Glaucous-wings, and a few
Heerman's Gull (both adults and immatures).

Also, there were several Orange-crowned and Wilson's warblers, including
juveniles, a Fox Sparrow, and a lone Red-necked Grebe.

All in all, I saw around 50 species on Vancouver Island, and we had a bonus of
at least three Orca just north of Tsawassen on our way back.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland WA
== MJCT_Hobbs at msn.com