Subject: Snowy plovers in Pacific/Grays Harbor Counties
Date: Jan 21 13:19:58 2001
From: Paul Webster - PWebst25 at concentric.net


In Ruth Sullivan's report of January 20 regarding seeing 28 Snowy
Plovers on the coast in Pacific/Grays Harbor County, I'm interested if
anyone can tell me about the numbers and range the SNPL in our state.
I'd thought we were close to the northern limit of their range and that
their numbers were relatively few. In many years of birding at
Leadbetter Point I've seen only one, though birding friends of mine over
the years have reported seeing one or two from time to time. 28 in one
trip would be pretty unusual in my experience. Ralph Widrig's 1980
checklist of the birds & plants of the Long Beach Peninsula -- adjacent
to the place where the birds were seen -- lists the SNPL as rare in
winter and uncommon otherwise. Have things changed that much since
1980? Or is this just a fortuitous one-time event?

Paul Webster
PWebst25 at concentric.net