Tweeters,

This last weekend Denny Granstrand and I birded Washington's outer coast,
including Ocean Shores (12 September), a pelagic trip off Westport (13
September), and a finale at Tokeland (13 September). In the Hooker willows
besides the main pond on Damon Point (south side of road), there was a
Bobolink in bright fall plumage, apparently a very rare bird on the outer
coast here. We were able to share this sighting with Bob Woodley from
Richland also. Shorebirds were not conspicuous, but a full day here did
yield 16 of the commoner species:

Black-bellied Plover-hundreds on the beach roost off end of Taurus St.
golden plover, sp.-2 only and fly-overs at that. Frustrating!
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Whimbrel
Black Turnstone
Red Knot-beach roost off end of Taurus St.
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper-Damon Point Rd. pond
Pectoral Sandpiper-Damon Point Rd. pond
Dunlin-beach roost off Taurus St.
Short-billed Dowitcher-mainly on Taurus St. beach roost
Long-billed Dowitcher- heard over game range
Common Snipe

One of the amazing sights of the day was watching a Peregrine rip away at
an immature Ring-billed Gull from the Bill's Spit wildlife viewing point
access and then fly away with a very extended crop. This beach access on
North Bay Rd. (about 1 mile north of the interpretive center) was
apparently purchased by Bob Morse so that birders and nature lovers could
have access to the Bill's Spit area, a site of great interest for all
naturalists. Here are many birds and seals, great marine life and a
wonderfuil view of Grays Harbor. Thanks Bob! Here we also saw the two
American White Pelicans which have been hanging around for sometime now.

Sunday (13 September), we joined Terry Wahl's pelagic boat trip to the edge
of the Continental Shelf some 35 miles west off Westport. About mid way
out, we had good views of two Xantus' Murrelets, still a review species for
Washington. Also seen on this trip were other birds from more southern
waters: many Brown Pelicans and lots of Heermann's Gulls.

Other Alcids were generally few on the entire trip: a handful of Common
Murres, a couple of Cassin's Auklets, and just a few Rhinoceros Auklets.

All three jaegers were noted and a possible South Polar Skua. Sabine's
Gulls were a real crowd pleaser; this is such a striking bird! And, there
were enough medium-sized terns out there to keep us challenged as to their
identity and age. However, all were ascribed as Arctics except a handful
off the breakwaters which were Common Terns.

Chumming over the edge of Grays Canyon yielded 60+ Black-footed Albatross
and one Laysan Albatross. Possibly the same Laysan was seen the day before
also. Northern Fulmar exhibiting a kaleidoscope of plumages, Pink-footed,
Buller's and Sooty Shearwaters and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels rounded out
our tubenose list. Both Red-necked and Red Phalaropes side-by-side on the
water made for a good study between these two species.

Out there amidst the immensity of the Pacific swells (3+ meters on this
day), I got a great "mini tutorial" about the "dilute domain" from Bill
Tweit. Apparently, the combined outflow of large volumes of freshwater
from both the Fraser and Columbia Rivers in this region of the northeastern
Pacific Ocean and the fact that the California Current, with its higher
salinity is up to several hundred miles offshore, helps keep nearshore
waters slightly less saline than is usual for most ocean waters. This
difference is only 1.0 to 1.5 ppm, but results in a detectable difference
in the marine environment. For example: the Black-footed Albatross favors
these less saline waters and is thus far more abundant (at least at this
season) off Washington, than in other areas such as Monterey, where the
California Current is closer to the coast.

Just before entering the breakwaters, we had many hundreds of Sooty
Shearwaters, several hundred Heermann's Gulls and lesser numbers of
"Olympic" Gulls and a handful of Black-legged Kittiwakes. On the jetty were
lots of cormorants-mainly Brandt's, but also a few Double-crested and
Pelagic. Rockpipers were represented by Ruddy and Black Turnstones,
Surfbird, and Wandering Tattler.

After the pelagic trip, several of us on board (Denny, George Gerdts and
Gene Hunn), drove south and scanned the large shorebird flock just south of
Tokeland. There was at least one Bar-tailed Godwit, 250+ Marbled Godwits
and 35+ Long-billed Curlews huddled close on the outer beaches. This
shorebird flock is always a joy to watch. We had great views of them all
in wild and high flight; we suspected a Peregrine put them up, but could
not find a predator.

All tallied, Denny and I had about 105 species of birds along the coast in
this area, including the pelagic trip. A great weekend!

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA