Good Evening Tweets

maryanne thorbeck, carolyn eagen and myself spent the day slaving
behind the scopes today (well, technically, yesterday) watching the
shorebird spectacle. it was very cool. can't find my notes, so am
doing this off the top of my head. i hope i'll cover the highlights.
hi tide at bowerman 1301.

we started at hoquaim sewage ponds and bowerman and saw very large
flocks of birds, predominantly DUNLIN and WESTERN SANDPIPERS. we
estimated at least 10 -15 000 peeps. we were treated to close views
of a BALD EAGLE enjoying her fresh kill. i especially enjoyed the
large (98) flock of GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE sitting quite
closeby. also seen here were LESSER YELLOWLEGS, CACKLERS, SHORT
BILED AND LONG BILLED DOWITCHERS, GREEN WINGED TEAL, RUDDY DUCK,
LESSER SCAUP, CLIFF SWALLOW, BARN SWALLOW, VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW,
GADWALL.

we moved on to ocean shores, first visiting bill's spit where we hit
the jackpot. we just stood by and were entertained by continuous
movement of large flocks of birds, many containing several hundred
birds. they often landed within just a few feet of us and we were
able to study them quite closely. new birds here were GREATER
YELLOWLEGS, DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT, WANDERING TATTLER, MARBLED
GODWIT, SURFBIRD, RUDDY TURNSTONE, AMERICAN WIGEON, SEMIPALMATED
PLOVER, MEW GULL, WESTERN GULL, WESTERN X GLAUCOUS WINGED HYBRID,
BONAPARTES GULL, RING BILLED GULL, CASPIAN TERN, RED BREASTED MERGS,
COMMON LOON and of course lots and lots and lots of peeps, this time
more westerns than dunlin. of note was that in all these thousands
of peeps, we had yet to see any leasts.

we finally managed to pull ourselves away and moved on the marina and
damon point. here we saw a log just jam-packed with westerns, looked
like peep carpet. we also scoped out WHIMBREL, SURF SCOTER,
BUFFLEHEAD, BLACK BRANT, WHITE WINGED SCOTER, NORTHERN HARRIER,
GREATER SCAUP, KILLDEER. of note is that here on damon point is
where we saw our first 2 LEAST SANDPIPERS. no sign of snowy plovers,
anyone know if there are any nesting there?? also we saw a falcon
spp. take a peep for dinner. we just caught the tail end of the
drama, and i like to think it was a merlin, but who knows??

from damon point we moved on to the north jetty where we saw another
WANDERING TATTLER and several BLACK TURNSTONES.

we moved next to the ocean shores sewage ponds, and scoped out over
the inlet. here we found ROCK SANDPIPER, HARLEQUIN DUCK, PELAGIC
CORMORANT AND BLACK SCOTER.

we cruised around the golf course hunting for anything else we could
find, but nothing major showed up. we saw RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD, WHITE
CROWNED SPARROW and BEWICK'S WREN.

we next checked out ocean city state park. it was pretty quiet, but
we did have a fantastic show of an OLIVE SIDED FLYCATCHER eating
dinner. the highlight was quite a large bumble bee sliding down the
hatch.

by this time, it was getting rainy, colder and darker. we headed
back toward seattle, but took a few detours along the way. we took
the brady loop road. out here we saw a flock of 23 WHIMBREL in one
of the fields. we also saw BALD EAGLE, AMERICAN KESTREL ( a pair)
TURKEY VULTURE and our first RED TAILED HAWK of the day! there was
one field in particular that was just filled with BLACK BELLIED
PLOVER and small peeps, mostly western, although we did see another
2 leasts.

we ended the birding by spending a little time along the chehalis
river watching the snipe flying and listening to the winnowing. what
a fantastic day!!

marissa j benavente
seattle
junebug at pol.net