Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded mainly the Ocean Shores area, with some minor
birding made at a few other locations to and from destinations in Grays
Harbor Co. The weather was very wet at times, being mostly cloudy, and
moderate to heavy rain at times, and constant wind near the water, and
isolated fog/with moderate showers inland. Despite the weather we
encountered many highlights at most locations as followed.

We started between MP 7 and 8 along SR 109, where 16 GREATER YELLOWLEGS were
noted in a flooded field on our way to Ocean Shores, being our first quality
bird of the day, then at the Ocean Shores Golf Course at 9am, where a single
drake EURASIAN WIGEON was noted, then driving along Marine View Drive our
first light-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK of the day was observed near the water
tower, north of the Ocean Shores Game Range, and a single male CANVASBACK on
Lake Minard.

At the Ocean Shores Jetty the wind was very apparent, but the rain led up
quite a lot, allowing minimal coverage of offshore waters, and a brief walk
on the jetty itself,(despite the constant crashing waves on the south side
of the jetty), in search of closer views and photograhes of the Priblof
Island race of the ROCK SANDPIPER, which was still present among 13 of the
dominant race of the ROCK SANDPIPERS, 37 SURFBIRDS, and 8 BLACK TURNSTONES.

Other species of note included:

75+ BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES(suprisingly good numbers throughout the entire
area, being not only confined to the mouth of Grays Harbor itself)
2 Herring Gulls
1 1st winter GLAUCOUS GULL
3 MARBLED MURRELETS

Next, a walk behind the Ocean Shores S.T.P.turned up 32 BLACK SCOTERS, 1
California Gull, and 8 BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES, then heading back towards
Marine View Drive along Fairwood Drive included the following notable
highlights:

2 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS(1 dark-morph, and 1 light-morph, with the latter being
a different bird than the previous light-morph bird)
1 SHORT-EARED OWL
1 immature NORTHERN SHRIKE
8 Yellow-rumped"Myrtle" Warblers

At Damon Point at 11:30am we continued to brave the dismal weather that
fortunately seemed to get better during our extensive visit, as we walked
through the grasslands,dunes, and along the beach shores that produced the
following notable species:

9 Brant
1 female LONG-TAILED DUCK(Oldsquaw)
1 PEREGRINE FALCON
23 Dunlin
54 Sanderlings
4 WESTERN SANDPIPERS
1 COMMON SNIPE
12 BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES
1 adult SNOWY OWL
2 HORNED LARKS
1 AM.TREE SPARROW
3 LAPLAND LONGSPURS

On our way home we stopped by Brady Loop Rd. at 3:15pm, where the immature
RED-SHOULDERED HAWK was located, and a few other notable highlights along
the entire loop, despite the very dark cloudy conditions, within the valley
including:

54 TRUMPETER SWANS
6 TUNDRA SWANS
7 "Dusky" Canada Geese
3 "ALEUTIAN" CANADA GEESE(now taken off the endangered species list, by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
58 "Cackling" Canada Geese
1 AM.KESTREL
258 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS
23 Dunlin

Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net