My wife and I walked our granddaughter along a lightly traveled Salt
Creek CP asphalt road (which fronts on the Strait of Juan de Fuca) through
the woods. My wife said 'what's that white bird in the road?' It was a winter
plumaged SNOW BUNTING and it ran or flew ahead of the stroller for a 100
yards while feeding before flying off when we reached the large open grassy
area. My three previous Clallam County records and all those of others that I
have forwarded to Russell Rogers and Bill Tweit have come from sand beachs
and usually spits. Since I bring this up, I may be flooded with wooded path
encounters with SNOW BUNTINGS. Of course, east of the Cascades they are found
in the open field areas with HORNED LARKS.
Also of some note, there were still 13 BROWN PELICANS at the point and at
least 8 HEERMANN'S GULLS. The HEERMANN'S GULLS sticking around is not
unprecedented (last year I had 150 at Ediz Hook and 100 at the Elwha River
mouth on Oct. 10 seen with Murray Hanson and Betty Jones) and, of course, we
have not had numbers of BROWN PELICANS on the north coast in previous years
to know how long they might stick around. However, I wonder if, in this El
Nino year, these two warm water species might stay longer.
Bob Norton
Joyce, WA