Hey Tweeters,
Birded today with Michael Dossett in the general Ocean Shores area. We had
good weather throughout, with partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies, but still
quite cold. Found quite a few highlights during to day. Our first stop was at
Hoquiam STP, where we saw the following:
1 BAIRD'S SANDPIPER - late date
many scaup of both species
~20 Canvasbacks
~25 Ring-necked Ducks
~10 Buffleheads
~15 Ruddy Ducks
2 Common Goldeneye

We then headed over to Damon Point where we hiked with George Gerdts out
past the pond and found:
4 SWAN spp.
1 RED-NECKED PHALAROPE (late date)
1 Least Sandpiper
4 Dunlin
5 Western Sandpipers
1 Black-bellied Plover

When we arrived back at the parking lot, we found a message on the car from
Steve Mlodinow et. al. stating that there was a Tropical Kingbird on Marine
View Drive, where it was first found earlier in the morning near Mink Court.
So we quickly drove to the location, but the bird was not present upon our
arrival. We searched for it for a while here, but didn't come up with
anything until we heard a distant call and saw Patrick Sullivan waving us
over. So we walked over there and viewed the TROPICAL KINGBIRD on the north
side of the road, across Lake Minard. Also in this area was:
1 Western Meadowlark
1 Northern (YELLOW-SHAFTED) Flicker
2 Purple Finches

After that we headed over to the Point Brown Jetty for a couple of hours.
We encountered:
1 Brown Pelican
1 first year Thayer's Gull
~70 Surfbirds
19 Black Turnstones
9 ROCK SANDPIPERS

We then decided to head home, but on the way I looked down a street near
Tonquin (I can't remember the name of it for the life of me) and saw a
kingbird-type on a wire. So we drove down and got excellent views of the same
TROPICAL KINGBIRD as before, but this time on a wire very near to us. We
watched it for about 5 minutes, and I got some close-up video. The bird then
called twice, eliminating all doubts of it being a Tropical. That's about all
that I can remember right now. Good luck and good birding!

Charlie Wright, 13
Birdking88 at aol.com
Sumner, WA