Hello Tweets,

Today Dave Hayden, and my mother and I birded from Tokeland to Ocean Shores,
along with a few other locations to and from destinations, including a
morning and evening visit to Brady Loop Rd., and Bottle Beach, near Ocosta.
Weather condition were surprisingly favorable during most of the day, with
mostly cloudy to partly sunny skies, and only very isolated rain showers,
and moderate wind at times throughout the entire day. Our main highlight of
the day was an adult female BAR-TAILED GODWIT at the Tokeland Marina in
Pacific County at 9:30am, which we located, after intially searching the
jetty over, as we watched a flock of 115 Whimbrel,and 14 Marbled Godwit,
which flew off and broke into two seperate flocks, with one flock returning
to the jetty. We quickly scoped the returning flock, which later produced an
adult female at 9:45am, which was also observed by Michael Carmody and other
birders attending his week long WA birding trip. We were able to point out
the differences of this individual bird in close relation to the few Marbled
Godwits present, by showing white underparts, from the belly to the
undertail coverts, pale buffy upperparts, showing some faint rust barring on
the upper breast, small patch of rust on both sides of neck,(with both
latter field marks indicating an alternate plumaged bird), darker
contrasting back(showing some buffy tones in the outer fringes)and crown,
white supercillium, and somewhat shorter, thinner bill, than nearby Marbled
Godwits, showing deeper red-orange tones at the base of the bill. Overall
the bird was slighly smaller than the Marbled Godwits(indicating a female
bird), but much paler, and could be easily overlooked, if not studied
properly/and or if bird is behind other shorebirds, and key features are
hidden. We watched the adult female from 9:45am-10:30am at slow outgoing
tide, as it mostly roosted on the jetty, viewed from the west side of the
jetty, along with views made from the north dock at the marina, but it
occasionally walked around, showing its head, but quickly tucked it in until
we left. The nonbreeding male Bar-tailed Godwit that my mother and I located
on the 22nd was not located today, but we later learned by running into Marv
Breece at Ocean Shores, that he observed that individual late on the 27th,
so this bird could still be around, and is much more noticeble in the field
with minimal effort. We also noticed much lower numbers of both Marbled
Godwits and Whimbrels at this location compared to the 22nd, but we
understand they move around the general area, and probably fluctuate from
day to day.

Our main route of the day started out at Brady Loop Rd at 7;30am, where we
relocated the adult RED-SHOULDERED HAWK again along the main road, before it
flew off along the Red alder-lined creek, near the closely associating
wetland, then continued west and south to Tokeland. Tokeland to Bottle
Beach(outgoing tide)at 11am, then Ocean Shores at 1pm. Ocean Shores to
Hoquim STP, then rechecking Brady Loop Rd. at 6pm on our way home, where we
located the immature WHITE-TAILED KITE hunting in th elarge open field east
of the wetland, as in previous reports, as well as roosting in a tall snag.
One noticeable change unlike past weeks was the lack of good numbers of
Rhino.Auklets, Common Murres, and Sooty Shearwaters, with extremely few
alcids, or as in shearwaters with none present during our visit to the Ocean
Shores Jetty at 1:15pm, or it could have been due to the tidal influence, or
time of day.Other notable highlights during our day included:

Brandt's Cormorant
8 at the Ocean Shores Game Range,Grays Harbor Co.(GH)

Green Heron
2 at Brady Loop Rd.,GH

Bufflehead
1 oversummering female at Hoquim STP,GH

Red-breasted Merganser
1 female at the O.S.Game Range,GH
1 female at Bill's Spit(Ocean Shores),GH

Black-bellied Plover
60+ at Bill's Spit,GH
52+ at Bill's Spit,GH

Semipalmated Plover
30 along S.R.105, south of North Cove,Pacific Co.(PA)
68 at Bottle Beach,GH
17 at the O.S.Game Range,GH
68 at Bill's Spit,GH
25 at Hoquim STP,GH
1 at Brady Loop Rd.,GH

Greater Yellowlegs
1 at Brady Loop Rd.,GH
25 at Cyber Lake(north of Ocean Shores),GH

Willet
12 at Tokeland,PA

Wandering Tattler
3 at the Ocean Shores Jetty,GH

Whimbrel
115 at Tokeland,PA
32 at Bill's Spit,GH

Marbled Godwit
14 at Tokeland,PA
1 at Bill's Spit,GH

Ruddy Turnstone
1 at Bottle Beach,GH
10 at the O.S.Jetty,GH

Black Turnstone
22 at the O.S.Jetty,GH

Surfbird
10 at the O.S.Jetty,GH

Red Knot
2 at Bill's Spit,GH

Sanderling
14 along S.R.105, south of North Cove,PA
3 at Bottle Beach,GH

Western Sandpiper(low count)
87 at Bottle Beach,GH
3 at Bill's Spit,GH

Least Sandpiper
5 at Bottle Beach,GH
62 at Bill's Spit,GH
4 at Brady Loop Rd.,GH

Short-billed Dowitcher
72+ at Bottle Beach,GH
43 at Bill's Spit,GH

Long-billed Dowitcher
4 at Ocean Shores STP,GH
5 at Brady Loop Rd.,GH

Bonaparte's Gull
1 adult at Hoquim STP,GH

Heermann's Gull(relatively good numbers throughout)
156 at the O.S.Jetty,GH(highest count at one location)

Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net