I would have posted this sighting much sooner, but, did not immediately
realize the possible significance. I spent Christmas with friends in
Mukilteo and, on Christmas day, mid morning, went to the Marine View boat
park and the North and South view parks. As you may remember, it was a cold
day with some fog and low clouds. While there, I saw the following (a treat
for those of us from Yakima) :

Northern Pintail - large flocks
Dunlin ) large mixed flock of probably 200+ dunlin and
Black Turnstone ) 100+ black turnstones
Bufflehead
Great BLue Heron - numerous, on the log rafts - quite a sight
Barrow's Goldeneye - numerous
Mallards
Double Crested Cormorants
Canada Goose
American Crows
Bald Eagle
Western Grebes
Horned Grebes
American Coots
American Wigeon
Black Capped Chickadees
Bushtits
It was not until sometime after I returned home that I looked at "Birding in
Snohomish County" published by the Pilchuck Audubon Society in 1997 to see if
I had missed anything. To my surprise, I saw that Black Turnstone was
considered to be accidental in Snohomish county, with only a single bird
sighted at the Everett waterfront in the past. While this may have changed
in the past two years, I thought that my sighting might be of interest to
those keeping track of Snohomish county birds.
I noted that Ruddy Turnstone was regular to the area, though not listed for
this time of the year. The birds that we saw were definitely Black
Turnstone, with no hint of brown color anywhere and with dark legs..We saw
them close to shore in the rocky beach area and also saw them in flight.

Joyce Lucas
Yakima, Wa.
ajbirds at aol.com