Subject: Gray's Harbor Shorebird Festival: Westport Trip
Date: May 2 12:15:22 1999
From: Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney - festuca at olywa.net


Hi folks,

Just got back from the Gray's Harbor Shorebird Festival, where I helped
lead a trip to the John's River/Westport Area. We enjoyed *relatively*
good weather - in between rain showers.....

A busload of a dozen-and-a-half of us left Hoquiam about 10am, and
we stopped at the John's River wildlife area, on both the east and west
sides of the river. We also went down to Westhaven State Park near
Westport, as well as the observation tower near the boat basin, before
going back to "Bottle Beach" park. Trip was done by 3:30pm.

Quite a few ducks and water birds at John's River, and we heard a
couple Virginia Rails. Good habitat, and we Might have seen/heard a
Sora if we'd had a tape? The Westport area was pretty slow, although
we had good looks at Harlequin Ducks and Pacific Loons. A FORK-
TAILED STORM PETREL had been seen at Westport yesterday, but
we couldn't luck into it today! By far, the best shorebird viewing we
had was at Bottle Beach, where the tide moved the birds (maybe 6,000)
within 75m of us, and we were treated to fly-by attacks on the flock by
Merlin and Peregrine. Neat! A Gray Whale was spouting 'way off
to the north from Bottle Beach, being 'chased' by whale-watching
boats out of Westport.

We saw 84 species this afternoon, with a great crew of birders
attending from Westport to Utah! The birds:

Red-throated Loon
Pacific Loon
Common Loon
Western Grebe - Westport Boat Basin
Double-crested Cormorant
Brandt's Cormorant
Great Blue Heron - along Hwy 105 roadside ditches
White-fronted Goose
Brant
Canada Goose - both 'honkers' (B.c. moffitti) and B.c. taverneri
Wood Duck
Green-winged Teal
Mallard
Pintail
Cinnamon Teal - the group got a good view of a drake at John's R.
N Shoveler
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Greater Scaup (and Lessers?)
Harlequin Duck - Grays Hbr south jetty
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Merganser
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Merlin - 1 at bottle beach
Peregrine - 1 (or 2?) at Bottle Beach
Virginia Rail - calling near Johns' River
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover - from basic to alternate plumages
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Whimbrel - 1 at Bottle Beach
Ruddy Turnstone - 1 at Bottle Beach
Black Turnstone - Westport jettys
Surfbirds - Westport jettys
Red Knots
Sanderling - 1 at S Jetty
Western Sandpiper - far and away the most abundant shorebird.
Least Sandpiper - few
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Common Snipe
Western Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull - as well as all the 'Olympic' gull hybrids.....
Caspian Tern
Pigeon Guillemot - Westport jetty
Rock Dove - Westport
Band-tailed Pigeon - John's River
Rufous Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
N Flicker
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
N Rough-winged Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Steller's Jay
Crow
Raven - 1 fly-by at Bottle Beach
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bewick's Wren
Marsh Wren
Winter Wren - heard
Golden-crowned Kinglet - heard
Robin
Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow - pugettensis
Red-winged Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird - Bottle Beach
Brown-headed Cowbird - quite a few
Purple Finch
House Finch
House Sparrow

Also, I saw a Yellow Warbler in Hoquiam this morning. Yesterday, at
Bowerman Basin Sewage ponds, I finally found a bird that's been
eluding me for years - I found a EURASIAN GREEN-
WINGED TEAL (Anas crecca crecca, with the horizontal white
'scapular' stripe). As it had a faint, small piece of vertical white
shoulder stripe, I would guess that it was a hybrid A.c. crecca X
carolinensis, but it was good enough for me.

And, today a FRANKLIN'S GULL was seen amongst the Bonaparte's
Gulls there.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net