Hello, tweeters.

We spent almost an hour just thoroughly enjoying the big flock of shorebirds
feeding and roosting on the mud in the Tokeland Marina on Saturday, 21 Oct,
as the tide was coming in around 4:30 p.m. The sun was at our backs, the
birds relaxed, and we scoped back and forth through the flock at leisure.
Around 10-20% were feeding at any one time, although most were napping.
Interestingly, the number of birds feeding actually increased while we were
there, counter to what you would expect as the tide came in. Both of the
Bar-tailed Godwits were sleeping when we arrived, but both began to feed
actively after a while.

These are my counts:

American Avocet - 1 (this bird wasn't there when we came, then at one point
the whole flock lifted up and flew around the marina, and when it settled
there was the avocet in the middle of it!)
Willet - 13 (the most Willets I've ever seen at one time in WA)
Whimbrel - 2
Bar-tailed Godwit - 2 (these were both juvenile females, interesting as I
had understood that there might have been two adults and one juvenile there
earlier; at least that's what Ruth Sullivan's photos looked like to me; it
was amazing how easy it was to hide these birds among the Marbled, as when
we first arrived and scoped the flock, there wasn't a trace of a pale bird,
and I was a bit disappointed; but in the course of birds shifting about,
first one, then the other Bar-tailed was exposed as a Marbled moved from in
front of it; I saw no sign of molt into first-basic plumage)
Marbled Godwit - 418 ? 10 (after we left, I started thinking that I had
dropped 100 from the count as I slowly moved through the flock counting
them, and it was too late to recheck [also, during my count, I looked to see
where I was at 200, and it didn't seem halfway through the flock]; I suspect
my count was actually 518, and I hope someone else who visits will take the
time to count them again; you have to count--my estimate of their numbers
was *way* below my count; these are staggering numbers for a bird that when
I moved to WA in 1967 was considered quite rare in the state)
Dunlin - 6 (also big flocks flying in the distance)
Short-billed Dowitcher - 2 (this is late for Short-billed, but one was a
typical juvenile, the other probably a first-winter bird that had completed
its molt; it seemed to have moderately well-marked but somewhat faded
tertials, very different-looking from the other bird; I'll admit I was
puzzled by the second bird, but I think it was a Short-billed)

The wing-tagged Double-crested Cormorant was still on the end of the dock,
the tag with its two parallel lines or #11.
--
Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115