Despite unsuccessful past attempts to find interesting plovers at
Midway Beach, WA (directions below), we were intrigued by Dave Lauten's
2nd-hand report of 21 Snowies and a possible Mongolian there recently.
With a moderate falling tide and ideal beach and observation conditions
(sporadic light rain), we tried again today.

Midway Beach is the ocean beach roughly midway along the stretch
between Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. Access is via Midway Beach Rd. from
highway 105, two miles south of the Grays Harbor - Pacific County line,
south of Grayland. Other accesses are at Grayland Beach SP, about 1 mile
north of Midway, and Warrenton Cannery Road, 1.6 miles south. If coming
from Tokeland, Warrenton Cannery Rd. is ~ 0.3 miles north of milepost 22.
Driving is permitted but often is not for the faint-of-heart and certainly
is not for those without a reliable 4-wd. We drove south through the
uppermost wrackline, then back north nearer the surfline. No one else was
south of Midway Beach Rd. during the 2-3 hours we were there.

In all, we found at least 40 small plovers, of which at least 15 were
Snowies and the remainder were Semipalmated. The birds were actively
moving around, so precise counts were impossible. Most of the plovers were
along a short stretch near the surf, a few hundred yards north of the
Warrenton Cannery Rd. access. We saw no shorebirds in the upper wrack or
at pools along the upper beach, although some plovers seemed to be flying
back and forth. They likely roost in the wrack at higher tides.

Other shorebirds seen were several hundred Sanderlings and a few
Dunlin. We also had a flock of about 30 Snow Buntings along with 3 Lapland
Longspurs in the uppermost wrack about half a mile south of the Midway
Beach Rd. access. But, if there was a Mongolian Plover present in the
area, we couldn't find it.

Cheers,

Bill & Sue
-----------------
The Smiths
Grays Harbor, Washington USA
birdsmiths at hotmail.com