Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded the southern portion of Grays Harbor to the
northern end of Willapa Bay at Tokeland, mainly birding two main key
locations including Bottle Beach and Tokeland, with much better weather
conditions than the previous day. We extensively checked both locations, and
came up with several highlights to be listed later in the message, but
probably our best highlight of the day, as far as an act of nature was an
adult Black Merlin attempting to persue a single Black-bellied Plover, along
with the presence of a female Northern Harrier at Bottle Beach at incoming
tide. The Merlin made 12 attempts, starting with knocking the Black-bellied
Plover into the water, then 11 other tries in catching the injured,
water-soaked plover along with the female Northern Harrier, before it
finally plucked the plover from the water, and carried it off to an unknown
perch. The Northern Harrier gave up after 5 tries, as the Merlin continued
to persue it's prey, as we watched the entire observation within a 15 minute
period from start to finish, until the Merlin was last seen heading west
towards the Elk River. At first, upon finally catching the plover the Merlin
had a hard time holding onto the bird due to it's slightly smaller size
compared to the slightly larger Merlin, but the bird soon was able to grip
the plover in it's talons before gaining to much elevation and continuing
west.

As noted earlier weather conditions were much more favorable than the
previous day, which made birding very enjoyable. Both Tokeland and Bottle
Beach locations hosted relatively good numbers of lingering shorebirds, as
well as additional species. A list of our highlights for the day follows at
selected locations as they occured:


Bottle Beach,Grays Harbor Co.(GH) 10am-11am(outgoing tide)

38 Common Loons
18 Horned Grebes
27 Brown Pelicans
33 Green-winged Teal
388+ Northern Pintails
56 Northern Shovelers
142 American Wigeon
2 EURASIAN WIGEON
10 Greater Scaup
26 Red-breasted Mergansers
3 Northern Harriers
1 Merlin
1 Peregrine Falcon
2 Virginia Rails
265 Black-bellied Plovers
1 PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER
2 Marbled Godwits
14 Red Knots
268+ Western Sandpipers
14 Least Sandpipers
450+ Dunlin
22 Short-billed Dowitchers
1 Parasitic Jaegar
7 Savannah Sparrows
13 Fox Sparrows
1 Lincoln's Sparrow
7 Golden-crowned Sparrows
8 Purple Finches

Tokeland,Pacific County(PA) 11:30am-4pm

62 Common Loons
28 Horned Grebes
37 Brown Pelicans
870+ Double-crested Cormorants
8 Greater Scaups
1 Osprey
2 Bald Eagles
1 Peregrine Falcon
360 Black-bellied Plovers
1 Greater Yellowlegs
13 Willets
41 Long-billed Curlews
1 female BAR-TAILED GODWIT
485 Marbled Godwits(including one individual that could be turned into the
previous species, due to the paler overall plumage, including white facial
area, and underparts, and partial supercillium, as well as buffy fringed
upperparts, and dark brown back, but buffy underwings are very evident in
flight or raised wings of bird)
2 Red Knots
78 Western Sandpipers
238 Dunlin
1 Short-billed Dowitcher
19 Long-billed Dowitchers
178 Heermann's Gulls
38 Mew Gulls
112 Ring-billed Gulls
540+ California Gulls
24 Caspian Terns
1 Am.Pipit
14 Cedar Waxwings
125+ Am.Robins
6 Savannah Sparrows
23 Fox Sparrows
4 WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS(1 white-striped form, and 3 tan-striped birds at
two locations)
3 White-crowned Sparrows
17 Golden-crowned Sparrows
1 Purple Finch

S.R.105 at MP 20, south of North Cove,PA 4:30pm

1 Western Grebe
12 Brown Pelicans
54 Surf Scoters
1 Osprey
1 Peregrine Falcon
315 Heermann's Gulls
187 California Gulls
3 Herring Gulls

John's River Wildlife Area,GH 4:50pm

85+ Am.Pipits


Eld Inlet,mouth of Perry Creek along Madrona Beach Rd.(Mud Bay),Thurston Co.
6pm

47 Greater Yellowlegs
1 Spotted Sandpiper


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net