Subject: Washington Birdbox May 1 - May 7, 2001
Date: May 9 21:51:25 2001
From: SCRBJAY at aol.com - SCRBJAY at aol.com


The Washington Birdbox is a voice mailbox sponsored by the Washington
Ornithological Society. To leave a message about a notable sighting, or to
listen to messages from the last seven days, call (206)328-9172 and follow
the prompts.

?Rachel Lawson is the system administrator. She can be reached at
rachellawson at qwest,net


Please contact me (Phil Kelley) by phone or e-mail if you have any questions,
comments or corrections about this transcription.

Wednesday, May 2, 10:49 AM. Hello, this is Kraig Kemper, (206) 789-9255,
reporting for Tuesday, excuse me, Wednesday, May 2. At the Montlake Fill this
morning there was one SOLITARY SANDPIPER with a pair of WOOD DUCKS on the
southeast most pond near the marsh on the east side underneath the large
black cottonwood tree. Also saw one WESTERN MEADOWLARK. Thank you. Bye.

Wednesday, May 2, 1:31 PM. Hi, this is Tom Aversa. I'm birding down in the
Ocean Shores Tokeland Area today with Steve Gerstall and others on a Seattle
Audubon field trip and at Tokeland we had a GREAT KNOT. It was a bird that is
sort of has a little bit of breeding plumage showing, a little black in the
back. And it was not right at the marina but a little bit over from the
marina under a pier. It moved out with some SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS and other
shorebirds and we lost track of it. But we did have the bird, so just wanted
to get it on the tape if people wanted to see that bird or look for that
bird. Good day.

Wednesday, May 2, 11:11 PM. Hi, this is Tom Aversa. If you listen to the next
message I am calling back at home tonight after consulting further resources
on that bird that's mentioned on the next message. We had a bird that we
thought was a GREAT KNOT today and it is far from certain at this point that
is what it was, because we had an inconsistency. We saw some banding in the
rump/tail area and that would kind of rule out GREAT KNOT. So, it possibly
was and it possibly wasn't. It had a really long beak and structurally
appeared to be a GREAT KNOT. It had some black feathers, but it was a winter
plumage bird and I would not put in on as 100%. It's possible. So if you go
down there it is probably worth looking for. It was in Tokeland in the
vicinity of the mud flats close to the marina. Later in the day we did have
more interesting birds. We had some SNOWY PLOVERS at Midway Beach. And then
we had a MOUNTAIN PLOVER, female at Ocean Shores Airport and later 3 WESTERN
KINGBIRDS on Brady Loop Road. So, sorry if we caused some confusion on the
KNOT situation. Its worth looking at, though. Thanks.

Thursday, May 3, 6:24 PM. Hi, this is Steven Mlodinow. This afternoon I went
out to an area known as Dike District #9. This area is along the south and
east side of Ebby Slough, just west of Snohomish. Find Fobes Road on a map,
and then in real life get to Fobes Road. Go north on Fobes Road until near
where it ends. You will pass a large blue barn on your left. Shortly
thereafter there is a gravel driveway on your left. Drive down that & park by
the gate. Walk through the gate up onto the dike. About a mile down the dike
is where the immature SWAINSON'S HAWK was. Also in this area there were 20
LESSER YELLOWLEGS and a SOLITARY SANDPIPER, BANK SWALLOWS and 3 WHITE-FRONTED
GEESE. Had good numbers of other birds. That's about it. Good luck and good
birding.

Sunday, May 6, 6:07 AM. Paul Hicks here, reporting for Saturday, May 5th,
(360) 264-2462. A couple of surprises in Tenino. HERMIT WARBLERS in a mixed
flock of warblers and 3 GRAY JAYS.

Sunday, May 6, 10:16 AM. My name is Brad Wilson, (253) 845-3216. This morning
at the Port Orchard Airport right across from the model airplane airport I
seen 5 MOUNTAIN QUAIL. There were located between about 7:00 this morning
until about 8:30. 3 of them were right by the model airplane airport. The
other 2 were along the fence line going up the hill by the rock quarry. The
birds were not calling at all. I took a tape and it didn't do any good. And,
I did not see these birds until I was practically right on top of them when
they would flush out and fly about 20 yards or so and drop back down into the
brush. But, there are still being seen there and like I said I seen 5 of them
this morning. That's it. Thank you and good luck.

Sunday, May 6, 10:16 PM. Hi, this is Steven Mlodinow. I spent the weekend
around Willipa Bay. And the highlight, definitely today, Ryan Shaw and I were
walking Ledbetter Point around 2:30 a LITTLE CURLEW flew by low, calling,
headed north. The bird kept on going as far as we could see. Places to look
would be Tokeland, the beach between Midway Beach and Westport and the beach
along Ocean Shores. Perhaps places like Bill's Spit as well. Otherwise there
were no rare shorebirds around though huge numbers of birds remain with over
10,000 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS at Ledbetter Point. We estimated 60,000
WESTERN SANDPIPERS there and 15,000 DUNLIN. Yesterday at Tokeland there were
500 RED KNOTS, 300 MARBLED GODWITS and 250 WHIMBREL. That's about it. Oh,
there is one more interesting bird. I had an OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER near
Montesano yesterday. That's it. Good luck and good birding.

Monday, May 7, 4;37 PM. This is Ed Swann at (206) 463-9636 . At about 4:00 on
Monday there was a REDHEAD male and female on Vashon Island at the pond on
the north side of 204 where it runs into Singer Road.

Monday, May 7, 6:59 PM. Hi, Robert Housen, (425) 485-0226. A SOLITARY
SANDPIPER was seen on this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, just east of
Cle Ellum on Highway 10, about a mile down the road according to the grid. It
provided a very nice opportunity for an up close and personal. Good Luck.

Birdbox last checked May 7, 9:16 PM.

Phil Kelley
scrbjay at aol.com
(360) 459-1499

"We were few and they were many. Now we are many
and they are few."
Confucius