Tweets,

Yesterday we had Ocean Shores covered! Carol Schultz & Charlie Wright led a
Tacoma Audubon field trip & I lead a Black Hills Audubon field trip. I also
saw Ruth & Patrick Sullivan as well as Bill & Nancy LaFramboise. To the
others in the area I missed My apologies. It turned out to be a pretty good
day.

Our first stop was at Ocean City State Park. It turned out to be really
crowded with a 4 wheeler rally. Our stop was brief & off to the jetty. Cyber
Lake appeared barren so we didn't stop there. The jetty was pretty foggy &
the surf was pounding more than I've seen most times. We saw some gulls and
quit a few PELICANS fly by, but not much else. We scoped the gulls on the
beach and the jetty and saw WESTERNS, GLAUCOUS-WINGED, CALIFORNIA, and
juvenile HEERMANN'S GULLS. As we were about to leave a small flock of
SURFBIRDS flew in and landed on the northern side of the jetty giving us all
good looks. The fog was rolling in and out periodically, but we never got to
see much past the end of the jetty.

Next stop was the sewage ponds, but not much there. We walked around the back
of the sewage ponds and had lots of SAVANNAH SPARROWS in the weeds by the
fence. We did see a PEREGRINE FALCON fly over the ponds and work its way down
the jetty. On the inside of sewage plant we noticed a large flock of
DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS on a sandbar in the inner harbor. On the sandbar we
also saw more BROWN PELICANS, a couple of RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS, and a
single CASPIAN TERN. Off to Damon Point.

At Damon Point we walked out to the pond and immediately found a juvenile
AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. We were just about at high tide and shorebirds were
traversing the pond almost constantly. A couple of small flocks landed, but
all we could see were WESTERN SANDPIPERS, 3 LEAST SANDPIPERS and several
SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. We also had another PEREGRINE FALCON and a NORTHERN
HARRIER working the far end of the pond. A MERLIN zipped by as we were
getting out of our cars at the foot of the point.

As we were finishing up at the pond Bill & Nancy LaFramboise came around the
pond and told us they had just seen the 3 BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS and gave
us directions on how to find them: Go to the end of the point and turn left
and follow the shoreline up the inner harbor until you come to a small spit.
Off we went. Around the pond, up the road and follow the beach to the spit.
On the way we saw a couple of HORNED LARK and lots of SAVANNAH SPARROWS and a
KILLDEER. Got to the spit and nothing. We looked and looked, but nothing.
Bummer! Disappointed we turned around and headed back when we saw them
working the beach toward us! Somehow we either passed them, or the flew in
behind us. There were 2 BAIRD'S SANDPIPERS with them and all were quite tame.
1 walked up to within 5 feet of us affording great views and some terrific
photo ops. On the way back up the beach we encountered some AMERICAN PIPITS.
At first a few and then they kept coming, until at least 40 or so we working
the seaweed line on the beach!

We also saw MARBLED GODWIT, COMMON and RED-THROATED LOON, a single
WHITE-WINGED SCOTER, and COMMON MURRE.

By the time we got to Bill's Spit it was 4:30 and the tide was out and we
were pretty tired. We saw gulls & sea lions way out but nothing really
exciting. Enough for one day so we headed back to Olympia tired but happy. At
Damon Point we met up with a couple of birders who joined us for the rest of
the day. She was from San Diego and he was from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
They were just passing through the area and had heard Damon Point was a good
spot to bird. Great to have them join us.



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
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