Julia Lippert and I birded parts of Grays Harbor area on Saturday April 28
with some interesting finds. At the Westport Jetty we saw a female
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE at the water's edge just south of the jetty - great
looks at close range. A flock of shorebirds on the jetty itself consisted
of about 80 SURFBIRDS, about 15 BLACK TURNSTONES, 2 ROCK SANDPIPERS, and 1
WANDERING TATTLER.

Bottle Beach was hopping as usual for this time of year. My rough count was
15,000 WESTERN SANDPIPERS, 6000 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, 7000 DUNLIN, 300
RED KNOT, and much smaller numbers of other species.

We visited Bowerman Basin near high tide and folks told us that a Peregrine
had chased off most of the birds, one rough guesstimate of 10,000 birds. As
we arrived there were only about a thousand left and mostly Westerns.
Numbers did increase somewhat before we left and had a nice pass by an imm.
PEALES PEREGRINE. Managed to count 160 SEMIPALMATED PLOVER before leaving.

42 WHITE-FRONTED GEESE were at Bowerman Basin and 20 were at west Brady Loop
RD pond, along with a CINNAMON TEAL and a SORA.

Chris Chappell
cchappell at thurston.com
Olympia, WA