Subject: Birding Trip to Dungeness Spit
Date: Jul 22 22:42:35 1999
From: Norton360 at aol.com - Norton360 at aol.com


In a message dated 7/22/99 4:19:15 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
dcarsen at hq.marh.gov.bc.ca writes:

<< Hello Bob,
I noticed your name on the Audubon website and just now on tweeters (report
of the hooded oriole). I plan to come to the Olympic Peninsula and camp at
the county park near Dungeness Spit. Do you have any suggestions about
birding out that way? I assume that the usual shorebirds such as least,
western, and semi-palmated sandpipers will be in migration. Do you also get
dowichers, willet, stilt sandpiper, baird's, and golden and semi-palmated
plover? Any chance of finding out more about the Dungeness area other than
the handy birding guide you have on your website? >> snip

The Dungeness Recreation area is fairly large with many trails.
Landbirding can be good but it is too early for many migrants.
The Spit is our best shorebird spot but the good shorebirding area is
off limits. At times there are some shorebirds at the base of the spit on the
Dungeness Bay side but you cannot walk very far on that side without being in
the closed area. On the outer side where one can walk down probably 2 miles,
you will be lucky to see very many shorebirds. It is a nice walk though and
something might pop up. One can usually walk to the lighthouse but they have
closed that off because of the fire at the end of the spit.
We get all the usual shorebirds except that SEMI-PALMATED is very
unusual. They seem to more common on Whidbey Island and on the east side of
the Puget Trough. It may be that we are overlooking them. I do not know of
any local records of Stilt Sandpiper. I have seen PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER in
the tiny segment of inner beach that is still open to legal entry.
At the present time the Oyster House, the 3 Crabs Restaurant Beach
and nearby 'horse pond' on 3 Crabs Road are the best bets for shorebirds.
Ediz Hook in Port Angeles is excellent and there was a WANDERING TATTLER
there today (reported by a carload of birders from Washington, DC and
Wisconsin that I ran into today) at the beach near the gate to the Coast
Guard Station (presumably the same as the one reported by Scott Downes on the
18th).
Bob Norton
norton360 at aol.com