This morning at 8:45 Andy Stepniewski and I found the EURASIAN DOTTEREL at
Bill's Spit. We looked at it for five or so glorious minutes before it took
off, flew toward the north and circled around when I lost sight it. I
thought it was headed for the Damon Point area but Bill Smith saw it a few
hours later a mile north of Bill's Spit. It will certainly be more
difficult to find if it increases its foraging and roosting territory.

I had spent five hours in the pouring rain and what seemed like
near-hurricane winds on Friday and then six hours of nearly the same on
Saturday pursuing the dotterel. After not finding it in three excursions to
the sand flats at the south end of the game range on the two days, Saturday
I walked the entire circumference of Damon Point thinking that if it wasn't
where it had been seen before, it must be somewhere else.

I ran into Barry Lavine two times Saturday morning. When he went to the
game range at about 11:00 I stayed at the northeast end of Damon Point. He
rushed back to get me after he and his friend Richard saw the bird at about
noon. We searched for it for over an hour but could not find it.

It was incredibly exciting to find it this morning after what I consider a
very long, tiring search in terrible weather. It was indeed time for
high-fives and back slapping! With us this morning was a friend of mine
from Abeerdeen who, even though he is not a birder, really enjoyed seeing
this rarity especially after having read a really nice article about it on
the front page of the Oct. 27 Aberdeen "Daily World" newspaper.

Also at Bill's Spit were LONG-BILLED CURLEWS, MARBLED GODWITS, DUNLIN,
SANDERLINGS, WESTERN SANDPIPERS and LEAST SANDPIPERS.

Later we stopped at the Pt. Brown jetty and found one or two ROCK
SANDPIPERS, six BLACK TURNSTONES and eight SURFBIRDS.

Good luck to everyone who tries to find the dotterel. I think it is going
to stay for quite a while. It is just going to be a little more difficult
to find.



* * * * * * * * * * *
* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* osprey at nwinfo.net *
* * * * * * * * * * *