Hi,

After wading through Friday afternoon Seattle traffic,
and camping at Twin Harbors State Park on Friday night
I did some coastal birding Saturday with a more or
less non-birding friend of mine. It was a fairly
successful trip for me, being only the second time I
had been to the Washington coast for birding (the
first was only for a pelagic trip last March).

We started at the Westport Jetty Saturday morning.
Highlights there included about 20 Surfbirds, 2 Black
Turnstones, 15 Ruddy Turnstones, and a Wandering
Tattler. We didn't go all the way out on the Jetty.
Actually, we didn't go very far out at all. Most of
these birds were right at the very base of the Jetty
running around on the sand picking stuff off the rocks
when we arrived. At 7:00 in the morning I suppose
they haven't been chased off the beach by people yet.

Next, we went south to Tokeland. I didn't have any
specific directions for places to go or how to get
there, but we arrived at the Marina at about 9:00. A
flock of about 200 Marbled Godwits was readily visible
when we got there. They were actually split into two
main groups, loafing on the beach about 100 feet away
from each other. Close inspection of both groups
didn't reveal any Bar-tailed Godwits, although it
produced a single Willet feeding at the edge of one of
the groups. As we moved down to one of the docks in
hope to get some photos, a dog running along the beach
spooked the godwits and they all took off. However,
about 5 minutes later, a group came back to land on
the other side of the Marina. We walked down onto the
dock to watch them at this area and found 9 Willets,
only about 40 Marbled Godwits, and a single Bar-tailed
Godwit. The very pale coloration of this individual
made it stand out right away. It was well outside the
range of variation observed in the flock of Marbleds.
This ID was confirmed after about 15 minutes of noting
the markings of this bird including the supercillium
and finally getting to see the tail as the bird took
to flight. As we left the Marina, a quick check of
the beach along the highwat produced about 35
Whimbrels scattered along the Beach.

We arrived in Ocean Shores at about 12:30. I have
decided that the best way to bird this location for
the first time or two is with someone who has been
there a lot before. We had some difficulty finding
our way to the various places described by others on
the list. Not to mention the fact that our
uncertainty about whether we were in the right place
or not added to our confusion. We tried looking for
the Golden Plovers previously found by Ruth and
Patrick Sullivan. We didn't have any luck, however,
we aren't sure that we were in the right place because
from the sounds of it, other were there watching it
while we were trying to find it. What we did find at
the Game Range was a couple large flock of Shorebirds
which we estimated to total about 4000 birds. They
circled and flew around very unsettled for quite a
while, some splitting off and going to other places
while others remained circling above the game range.
As they flew overhead we could tell they were
primarily Black-bellied plover. It is very possible
that there were Golden Plover or even Red Knot mixed
into the flock though. We never got a chance to see
any of these birds once they landed.

After watching the Black-bellied Plovers flyover, we
headed to the Pt. Brown Jetty where we saw even more
Surfbirds and Black Turnstones than we saw at
Westport. We could only find 4 Ruddy Turnstones
however. There were 2 Wandering Tattlers present as
well. About 200 Sooty Shearwaters were well off in
the distance. We didn't spend too much time looking
at them however because of the setting sun.

Michael Dossett
Bothell, Washington
Phainopepla at yahoo.com


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