Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded the Ocean Shores and Tokeland areas, with a
stop on the way back home along Brady Loop Rd., near Montesano. Weather
started out with very dense fog from McCleary to Montesano along Hwy.12,
then partly to mostly sunny the remainder of the day, with isolated showers
at times. The best birds of the day were the two BAR-TAILED GODWITS at the
Tokeland Marina, with both birds together, with the adult male present on
the 16th of July, by my mother and Ryan Shaw, but didn't realize it at the
time until my mother observed the bird along with the noticeably larger
adult female along with the buffier MARBLED GODWITS.

We started out the day at Ocean Shores in search of the BUFF-BREASTED
SANDPIPER, with extensive walking throughout the general Damon Point area,
along the beach vegetation around the tip of Catala Spit, short grassy
areas, and around the Damon Point "pond", with NO luck from 8-11:30am, with
very few shorebirds, but did encounter 3 PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVERS(2 adults,
and 1 juvenal)at the west end of the Damon Point pond, 2 RUDDY TURNSTONES
along the beach to Catala Spit, and the injured juvenal DUNLIN near the base
of Damon Point. The YELLOW-BILLED LOON was also present, but well offshore
at outgoing tide.

At 12:30pm we arrived at Tokeland, where the 2 BAR-TAILED GODWITS were
observed with minimal effort, as they fed on an exposed sand bar in the
breakwater, as the tide began to slowly come in, then the birds flew off to
the west to another sand bar, then came back and roosted on the jetty at the
marina until we left at 3:30pm, along with 98 MARBLED GODWITS, 14 WHIMBRELS,
1 LONG-BILLED CURLEW, 10 WILLETS, and 45 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS. Several
other birders were present, as they watched the roosting birds at incoming
tide, but both BAR-TAILED GODWITS would often roost with their head tucked,
but occasionally pulled it out allowing good looks at the distinctive white
supercillium.

On our way home, as mentioned before, we stopped by the Brady Loop Rd.
"wetland", with the following birds:

3 LESSER YELLOWLEGS
1 GREATER YELLOWLEGS
5 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER
2 PECTORAL SANDPIPERS
1 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER
34 LEAST SANDPIPERS
59 WESTERN SANDPIPERS
1 BAIRD'S SANDPIPER
4 COMMON SNIPE
3 CINNAMON TEAL
7 BLUE-WINGED TEAL

Along Monte-Brady Rd. a WESTERN SCRUB JAY was perched on a wire in a
residential area, before getting back onto Hwy.12 eastbound, then a COMMON
NIGHTHAWK was noted flying along Hwy.12 at the Shouweiler Rd. exit, as it
hawked insects.

Good Birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net