Tweeters,

Marissa Benavente and I checked Tokeland and Ocean Shores on the central
Washington coast today (5 September), mainly looking for shorebirds.

At Bottle Beach in Grays Harbor, there were:

Black-bellied Plover - ~ 250
Semipalmated Plover - ~ 10
Wandering Tattler - 1, heard calling (to separate from Gray-tailed, a bird
to look for on mud flats), perched on huge tires before flying off to the
south at south end Bottle Beach. Bizarre!?
Marbled Godwit-4
Western Sandpiper - ~ 500
Least Sandpiper - ~ 25
Short-billed Dowitcher - 50, many (most, all?) bright juveniles

At the Tokeland jetty, we were rewarded with:

Willet - 20+
Whimbrel - 25
Bar-tailed Godwit - 1, possibly another
Marbled Godwit - 225+
Black Turnstone - 1
Short-billed Dowitcher - ~ 30

Along the lagoon with lilies and dead and protruding logs south of Ocean
City State Park (at sharp bend on SR 115 just north of Ocean Shores), there
was a noisy bunch of 100+ Greater Yellowlegs, apparently roosting here
during high tide, that took off, group by group, to the east as the tide
was going out. Here also were 20+ Short-billed Dowitchers (no Long-bills
detected, though this is presumably fresh water). There was a nice bunch of
Wood Ducks here also.

At Bill's Spit south of Ocean Shores, we noted:

Black-bellied Plover - ~ 1,500
Semipalmated Plover - 3
Killdeer - 2
Long-billed Curlew - 14
Marbled Godwit - 5
Western Sandpiper - ~ 250
Least Sandpiper - 15
Short-billed Dowitcher - 150+

And a bunch of loafing Harbor Seals out in the bay.

At the pond on Damon Point:

Pacific Golden-Plover - 1. We studied extent of primary projection and Tom
Schooley hinted that plumage characters were consistent with this species.
Killdeer-4
Greater Yellowlegs - 1
Pectoral Sandpiper - 1
Ruff - 1, juvenile, nice!

Brown Pelicans, Sooty Shearwaters, and Heermann's Gulls were few as
compared to my last trip here (7 August).

Add some more sites Patrick Sullivans birded (see his post today), and
you can have a great shorebird trip tomorrow (Labor Day) in the Ocean
Shores to Tokeland area. Today was rainy and drizzly, tomorrow will be
fine! Go for it!!!

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA