Hello, tweeters.

Sorry I didn't post this sooner, but I wanted to share a good birding
experience and report on a situation that you might duplicate yourself at
some later date.

I got to watch shorebirds at close range for several hours at Leadbetter
Point, Pacific Co., on Friday afternoon, 5 May. We got out to the bay side
of the point at about 4:30 p.m., just after high tide. The sun was at our
backs, and we saw the shorebirds coming in in larger and larger numbers to
feed as the tide started out. The low tide must have been fairly high, as
the birds stayed near for a long time as the tide slowly receded. We
walked all along the bay side until it got too wet in the salt marsh, and
we were able to observe just about all the birds present. It was a perfect
situation for observation, and with the 45x spotting scope, we could almost
fill the frame with the closest birds. There was no wind, and the birds'
musical and loud vocalizations were constant.

Species present and estimates of numbers (those <100 were counted):
Black-bellied Plover 100
Semipalmated Plover 150
Greater Yellowlegs 5
Whimbrel 15
Long-billed Curlew 2
Marbled Godwit 6
Ruddy Turnstone 12
Red Knot 500
Western Sandpiper 1000
Least Sandpiper 2
Dunlin 1000
Short-billed Dowitcher 1000
Long-billed Dowitcher 1

All birds were in full breeding plumage except for a few immature
black-bellies and dowitchers in nonbreeding plumage. All the godwits were
in nonbreeding plumage and must have been immature. Dowitchers and
Semipalmated Plovers were doing a lot of singing, not surprising as they
breed farther south, on the average, than some of the other species, so
were closer to their breeding grounds and breeding times. The semi plovers
were very aggressive to conspecifics, as expected, and their behavior was
really striking in comparison with that of the other species present.

Surprising how few Least Sandpipers there were, but we looked closely for
them and saw almost none (one of the two tallied was a bird that flew
over). The only Long-billed Dowitcher was one that flushed from the salt
marsh (most of the birds were out on the mud) and flew away, calling
repeatedly. The Short-billed Dowitchers were calling constantly, and I
never heard another Long-billed. That species is, I think, usually just
about absent from the huge dowitcher flocks in spring on the coast.

Anyway, it was a sublime experience, and I can't image how it could have
been better, given the lighting, the close range, the vocalizations, and
the absolutely stunning breeding plumages. I wasn't bothered by the
absence of rarities, as I didn't expect to see any (not that that wouldn't
have been a wonderful icing on the cake). This is obviously an optimal
shorebird viewing situation, one that could be duplicated any time during
migration, with careful planning.

It would be interesting to know if anyone was at some place like Bottle
Beach at the same time, and what they saw.

Dennis




Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html