Tweets,
I as well as the rest of the people did not see it this morning. There
were other good birds, Lapland Longspurs, Greater-white Fronted Geese and
a fair amount of Shorebirds at various times. There were 31 Dowitchers, as
many as 27 snipe, between 4-6 Pectoral Sandpipers and a merlin. harrier,
peregrine and a Coopers Hawk. With the raptors present the birds hidden in
the reedy areas would flush up into the air and at no time did we see the
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. There are extensive marshy areas that can not be
seen, and I hesitate to say the bird is no more because it might have been
somewhere else today. I would say if your feeling lucky and have time, go
for it, afterall isn't birding a bit of luck?

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA



On Sun, 5 Oct 1997 Norton360 at aol.com wrote:

> TWEETS,
> I do not think the SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER was seen today at the 3 Crabs
> horse pond. Ruth and Patrick Sullivan were there at 8:30 and were joined by
> Scott Downes and Nancy Ladengergen. They had had no luck when I left at about
> 10:30 and Bob Boekelheide did not see it at 3PM.
> Meadowbrook Creek has had a lot of work done on it by Les Jones (a major
> landowner and past president of our Olympic Peninsula Audubon Chapter) and
> others to improve the fish spawning potential of the creek with advice from
> the FWS. I don't know any details of the trapping but I feel certain this was
> done with considerable thought and with the consent of (and perhaps by) the
> FWS. I presume the threatened fish took priority over the nonthreatened
> beaver. I felt like I had lost a friend as I saw the horse pond evaporate.
> Bob Norton
> Joyce, WA
>