Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I, and Dave Hayden birded the Ocean Shores area, with
the weather staying cold with moderate wind, and minor showers at times,
being mostly cloudy. The main highlight was the juvenal ptilocnemis(Priblof
Islands)race of the ROCK SANDPIPER at the Ocean Shores Jetty, which was our
first major stop, as we also ran into Ryan Shaw, and his friends there, just
as we left.We encountered good numbers of "rockbirds" including 135
SURFBIRDS, 17 ROCK SANDPIPERS, which is my first record of this amount of
both species in WA at one spot, where they fed and foraged near the base of
jetty, then flew to the south side of the jetty, then back several times
during our visit, allowing good photo oppurtunities. The single Priblofs
race of the ROCK SANDPIPER was described at first glance, as being somewhat
larger,and paler than the normal, more common races of Rock Sandpiper. The
bird was noted to have a much browner, and grayer back, with minimal buff
wash of the upper breast(which was very faint), and less heavily steaked on
the breast, and sides, than the darker race, being finer streaked. The crown
was quite brown overall, contrasting to the pale face, and underparts, but
the legs, and bill colors were that of the normal race. Other notable
highlights at this location included:

2 MARBLED MURRELETS
1 BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE
2 THAYER'S GULLS
4 HERRING GULLS
4 Western Gulls
12 Black Turnstones
1 Sanderling

At the Ocean Shores S.T.P. we briefly walked to the east end of the jetty,
where 2 pair of HARLEQUIN DUCKS, 1 PEREGRINE FALCON, and 4 ROUGH-LEGGED
HAWKS were noted with the hawks observed flying around with a few Norther
Harriers, around the general location, and north to the Ocean Shores Game
Range, being my first high count for Ocean Shores.

At Damon Point, we walked around the majority of the dunes, and grassland
areas, as well as checked the "pond", and the noth beach areas, then back to
our vehicles, with the following notable species, as we mainly looked for
any possible signs of a SNOWY OWL, but NO luck.

11 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS
2 GREATER YELLOWLEGS
22 Black-bellied Plovers
54 Sanderlings
67 Dunlin
1 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK
1 PEREGRINE FALCON
1 PALM WARBLER
1 SAVANNAH SPARROW

On the east portion of the Ocean Shores Game Range, along the south beach,
we encountered an immature columbarius race of MERLIN, resting on a dead
driftwood stubble at close range, until a small Dunlin/Black-bellied Plover
flock flew nearby announcing their presence, alerting the falcon to take
flight, which was the only highlight at this location, as the wind began to
increase. At the nearby Ocean Shores Marina a single EARED GREBE was noted,
amongst the more common waterbird species.Our last stop was made at the
Hoquim S.T.P., where duck numbers were quite low compared to past recent
visits,but were able to locate 34 RUDDY DUCKS and 1 female Common Goldeneye,
being our best species at this location, as the daylight began to decrease.


Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net