Tweets,

I had the opportunity Sunday to bird the Tokeland, Bottle Beach, Brady Loop
area with Ruth Sullivan. Our target birds were the BAR-TAILED GODWIT at
Tokeland and the WILSON'S PHALAROPE at the pond on Brady Loop. I guess 1 out
of 2 isn't too bad. All in all, we had a good day seeing about 50 species. We
missed some birds as we were concentrating on the shorebirds.

We got to Tokeland about 4 hours before high tide, and sure enough, there
were the birds feeding on the mud flat inside the rock jetty. It sure made
things easier then if they were all roosted on the jetty. The BAR-TAILED
GODWIT was pretty easy to pick out among the other birds.

After that we went to Bottle Beach. It is a good thing Ruth knew where we
were going, cause I sure would have missed it, as I have missed it in the
past trying to find that turn off. I'm not sure I can find it now, even after
being there. There were lots of WESTERN SANDPIPERS there, as well as some
GREEN WINGED TEAL and NORTHERN PINTAIL. The highlight there was watching a
juvenile PEREGRINE FALCON stir things up. He came up empty, but sure got
everyone else moving.

Next it was off to Brady Loop Road to find the WILSON'S PHALAROPE. No such
luck for me, although Ruth got a look at it before it disappeared. 3 TURKEY
VULTURES flying over the pond got everyone's heart beating. We did manage to
see PECTORAL and SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS there.

Numbers of shorebirds at each location:

Tokeland:

8 WHIMBREL
44 LONG-BILLED CURLEW
11 WILLET
~200 MARBLED GODWIT
1 BAR-TAILED GODWIT
28 SHORT BILLED DOWITCHERS
29 WESTERN SANDPIPERS
2 GREATER YELLOWLEGS

Bottle Beach

~2000 WESTERN SANDPIPERS
1 LEAST SANDPIPER
250 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER
6 RUDDY TURNSTONE
25 SEMIPALMATED PLOVER
75 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS
18 WILLET
21 GREEN WINGED TEAL
11 NORTHERN PINTAIL

Brady Loop Road

75 WESTERN SANDPIPER
8 LEAST SANDPIPER
3 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER
2 PECTORAL SANDPIPER
6 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER
1 WILSON PHALAROPE
1 GREATER YELLOWLEGS
1 LESSER YELLOWLEGS.

Phil Kelley
Lacey, WA
scrbjay at aol.com
(360) 459-1499

"We were few and they were plenty. Now we are plenty and they are few"
Confucius