............Spent Friday-Sunday at Long Beach Peninsula, Wash.
............Walked the beach at the west side of Willapa Bay Sat., as
the high tide came and then receeded. Birds observed by me and/or by
several other birders I met:
---Western Sandpipers
---Leasr Sandpipers
---Semipalmated Sandpipers
---Black-bellied Plovers
---Marbled Godwit (a *first* for me!!!!!}
---Great Blue Herons
---Brown Pelicans(quite a few!!!!}
---Brant(several hundred far out in the bay)
---Whimbrels
---Long-billed Curlews(Last 2 species were seen at the
tip of Leadbetter Point)
---Peregrine Falcon
---Marsh Wrens
---Red-tailed and Harrier Hawks
---A few Turkey Vultures

---And 'gobs' of Crows and Gulls!!!!!!!!!
---And even an over-effectionate crab spider(climbed up the
side of a fellow birder, than me!!!)


.............Hiked the ocean beach north of Oysterville Rd(the northern
part of the peninsula) Sunday. Shorebirds were very plentiful. Seen by
me:
---Sanderlings(zillions and zillions of them!!!!)
---Western Sandpipers (many)
---a few Least Sandpipers mixed in
---Black-bellied Plovers
---Dunlin
---Semipalmated Plovers
---Short-billed Dowitchers
---Streams of black-colored birds heading north over the ocean. Judging
from size, shape, and flight peculiarities, I would judge them to be
Shearwaters of some sorts. *Exact* species identification impossible due
to distance)

-----Gulls most plentiful in large groups...most likely attracted
to the vast amounts of large crabs that the tide was washing in. Seemed
to be mainly California, Glaucous-winged, and some Western Gulls.

----When walking back to the car, flushed out of the beach
grass a robin-sized bird with a copper or burnt-orange colored tail. It
dissapeared into a shore pine, and vanished there, so I wasn't able to
ID it. I wonder what I saw!!!!

Good nite to all..........

Gerald Hamilton
Brush Prairie, Wash.
gerald at e-z.net