Tweets,
Just returned from 9+ days on Lopez Island where I was doing Bat research.
During the day when I had down time I managed to get birding in and Lopez
is a VERY good place to bird. If you have not been there I would recommend
it highly.Total in the period I had 115 species with the following
highlights:

July 8th:
Adult Golden Eagle-Mud Bay Rd.
Merlin-Mud Bay Rd.
Adult Cooper's Hawk-Fisherman Bay
15 Western Sandpipers, 12 Least Sandpiper in pond off of Pt. Stanley Rd.
(Highly productive shorebird spot, looking forward to seeing what it has
when I go back in August)
1 Lesser Yellowlegs-Fisherman Bay
The best bird of the period was a WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH on DNR property
on Shark-reef Rd. This was not typical habitat as it was second growth
doug-fir forest, with some snags. I got a very good look at the bird, but
could not re-find it the next day. I checked Sharpe & Lewis and they list
no records for the County, is this a first?

July 9th:
1 Tufted Puffin-Pt. Colville
26 Marbled Murrelet-Off of Agate County Beach.
20 Westerns, 1 Semipalmated, 1 Least- Port Stanley Pond.
* Not bird related, but very neat. 15-20 Orcas off of Agate County Beach,
many very jumping completly ot of the water!

July 10th:
34 Westerns, 2 Semipalmated, 1 Least- Port Stanley Pond

July 11th:
Pair of Western Screech Owls calling in the rain at 10:00 PM-Spencer Spit
St. Park
Male Ring-necked Pheasant-Airport Rd. (supposedly a rarish species in the
islands, this one could have been a recently released bird but was far
enough away from homes/farms and in appropriate habitat that it could have
been semi-wild.

July 12th:
67 Western Sandpipers (44 Breeding Plumage, 11 Juvenals, 12 worn plumaged
adults), 2 Greater Yellowlegs-Fisherman Bay
Common Loon-West of Fisherman Bay
Red-throated Loon-Iceberg Pt.
Spotted Sandpiper-Cole Pond
Sharp-shinned Hawk,Adult-Vista RD.

July 13th:
16 Surfbirds on Goose Island (San Juan Channel, viewed from Shark Reef)
Ring-necked Pheasant, male-Mud Bay Rd.

July 14th:
Sora-freshwater marsh behind Whatmough bay
150-175 Western Sandpipers, 1 Semipalmated Sandpiper

July 15th:
American Kestrel-Airport Rd.
Sharp-shinned Hawk-Mud Bay Rd.

Great birding, though it wasn't my main focus. If anybody wants to know of
good spots or where some of these spots mentioned are, feel free to email
me about them. I'm trying to catch up on email so it might be a day or so.

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA