Hello Tweets,

Today my mother spent a very rewarding day in the Ocean Shores area, despite
having extremely low numbers of shorebirds, which was quite unexpected
compared to our last visit on the 20th of October. Weather conditions were
very good, making for exceptional late fall birding. We encountered several
highlights, along with running into several birders at Ocean Shores, but
probably our best personal highlight was a ROCK WREN foraging along the rock
outcropings along the west portion of the Ocean Shore STP, which was
photographed at 2:30pm, but originally found by George Gerdts earlier. The
bird was very approachable, and fairly cooperative allowing great looks at
this apparent first county record for Grays Harbor County. Another
highlight, which was seen and observed by many other birders during our
visit was a single TROPICAL KINGBIRD, which was orginally located at 10:30am
by Steve Mlodinow, Bill Tweit, Kevin Aanerud, and Ryan Shaw along Marine
View Drive between Tonquin Ave. and Muskrat Court. We located the bird at
12:45pm, after the intial sighting, as the bird foraged continously along
the vegetated area along Lake Minard, so hopefully this bird will remain for
some time to come, or others may follow. Relatively good numbers of raptors
were noted throughout the day, mainly south of Marine View Drive. A list of
our notable highlights as they occured follows for the day:

S.R.109 at MP 3(Bowerman Basin) 8:30am

1 Snow Goose

Ocean Shores Golf Course 8:53am-9am

8 Greater White-fronted Geese
11 "Cackling"Canada Geese

Bill's Spit 9:07am-9:30am(incoming tide)

2 Eurasian Wigeon
1 Western Sandpiper
8 Least Sandpipers
22 Mew Gulls
43 Ring-billed Gulls
4,000+ California Gulls
28 Herring Gulls
5 Thayer's Gulls
4 Western Gulls

Marine View Drive at the east end of Lake Minard 9:35am

1 light-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK(observed at three seperate locations)

Ocean Shores Jetty 9:45am-10:30am

17 Red-throated Loons
12 Pacific Loons
245+ Western Grebes(high count for location)
9 Brown Pelicans
8 Brandt's Cormorants
27 Black Turnstones
11 Surfbirds
18 Sanderlings
8 ROCK SANDPIPERS
3 RED PHALAROPES
7 Bonaparte's Gulls
3 Heermann's Gulls
1 adult GLAUCOUS GULL
2 Black-legged Kittiwakes

Ocean Shores STP/Ocean Shores Game Range 10:40am-11am, 1pm-1:30pm,
2:15pm-2:40pm(3 visits)

5 Brown Pelicans
1 BLUE-WINGED TEAL
36 Northern Shovelers
2 Greater Scaup
2 Lesser Scaup
22 Black Scoters
8 Buffleheads
7 Northern Harriers
1 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK
1 AM.KESTREL
1 Peregrine Falcon
2 Greater Yellowlegs
2 Western Sandpipers
3 Pectoral Sandpipers
1 Mourning Dove
1 ROCK WREN
12 Am.Pipits
1 Savannah Sparrow

Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from Tonquin Ave.)
11:15am-11:35am(outgoing tide)

3 Greater Yellowlegs
3 Northern Harriers
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 Cooper's Hawk
1 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK

Ocean Shores Marina 11:45am-11:52am

37 California Gulls
13 Herring Gulls
1 Thayer's Gull
2 Western Gulls

Marine View Drive(between Tonquin Ave.and Muskrat Court, including Lake
Minard) 12pm-1pm, 2pm(two visits)

1 Red-throated Loon
2 EARED GREBES
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 dark-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK
1 Merlin
1 Peregrine Falcon
1 Band-tailed Pigeon
1 female Anna's Hummingbird
1 YELLOW-SHAFTED FLICKER
1 Hermit Thrush
2 Varied Thrushes
1 Western Meadowlark

Hoquim STP 3:45pm-4:05pm

3 Brown Pelicans
5 Greater White-fronted Geese
1 Snow Goose
14 "Cackling"Canada Geese, amongst good numbers of larger forms of Canada
Goose
24 Canvasbacks
28 Ring-necked Ducks
32 Greater Scaup
48 Lesser Scaup
1 adult winter male LONG-TAILED DUCK(photographed within 12 feet)
2 Common Goldeneyes
18 Bufflehead
22 Ruddy Ducks

Hwy.12 between MP 16 and 17(east of the Satsop River Bridge and Keys Rd.)
4:30pm

1 Snow Goose


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net