Subject: Fw: More Numenius tales
Date: May 18 16:06:54 1998
From: "Ruth Sullivan" - GODWIT at worldnet.att.net


Hello Tweeters,
I am sorry this message was delayed.
Ruth Sullivan

----------
> From: Bill Smith <pwsmith at dc.seflin.org>
> To: mpatters at pacifier.com
> Cc: godwit at worldnet.att.net; Dennis Paulson <dpaulson at ups.edu>
> Subject: More Numenius tales
> Date: Friday, May 15, 1998 10:02 PM
>
> Knowing everyone's current interest in the region, I'm passing along the
> following even as we try to pack the car for our forthcoming 3-week trip.

> I hate to think what we'll miss?
>
> Sue and I took a walk this evening (Fri.) from the base of Damon Pt.
> (Ocean Shores) towards the game range. On the west edge of the
> westernmost "closed for Piping Plover nesting" area, i.e., where the
> farthest grass ends, we flushed an apparently exhausted N. phaeopus
> variegatus hunched up in the strewn logs above the tide line. It was not
> associating with the several dozen N. p. hudsonicus on the flats to the
> north. This individual had an obviously white rump, but the lower back
> was less obviously white than I've seen on European Whimbrels. The bird
> slunk off after alighting and we didn't readily relocate it in the waning

> light.
>
> I wouldn't venture a guess what's going on, and I'm sorry we won't be
> around to see how it plays out.
>
> Incidentally, we did not see the BTCU in several passes along the beach
> between Ocean Shores and Copalis Beach on Wed. or Thurs., but I know
> others did see it both those days. I have no news from Fri. If still
> here, it is perhaps best characterized as "mobile and elusive", thanks to
> the heavy human disturbance in this whole area.
>
> ----------------
> P W (Bill) Smith
> Grays Harbor, Washington USA
> pwsmith at dc.seflin.org