Hello Tweets,

Today my mother I ventured back to Ocean Shores in search of the
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at the Damon Point "pond" that was reported by Bob
Woodley yesterday, but seen on the 8th of September. We managed to scout
three main areas in the general Damon Point area, along with Bill and Nancy
LaFramboise, and Dave Hayden, including the north access of the Ocean Shores
Game Range off of Tonquin Ave., then later the Ocean Shores STP, which my
mother and I checked, but we had NO LUCK with this species, although it has
been just over a week since it was originally observed. Despite the rather
large number of birders last weekend at the Damon Point only one observer
noted the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, which is quite surprising.

My mother and I upon arriving at the Damon Point pond at 12:30pm located 4
BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS, with one bird being photographed at the west end
of the Damon Point pond, which was noted 2 minutes after 3 additional birds
were observed flying from the pond, but continued west towards the base of
Damon Point, but could not be relocated. Several observers noted up to three
birds at one time during the entire day, so it is very possible that the
birds may occasionally split up in this general area, where they have most
readily and recently been observed at the east tip of Damon Point, which is
a rather lengthy walk from the entrance parking lot. Weather conditions were
somewhat better than yesterday, bur still notably cloudy, with occasional
light mist/fog at times. During our rather short stay at Ocean Shores we
observed the following highlights at selected locations and times:

Damon Point(including eastern portion of the O.S.Game Range)
12:30pm-1:45pm, 4:30pm(outgoing tide)

23 Common Loons
8 Red-throated Loons
2 Western Grebes
4 Horned Grebes
35,000+ Sooty Shearwaters(noted in North Bay from 12:45pm-1:25pm)
77 Brown Pelicans
800-850+ Double-crested Cormorants(all birds observed feeding offshore/and
or roosting on Sand Island in North Bay)
340+ Surf Scoters
160+ White-winged Scoters
1 juvenile Peregrine Falcon
1 Ring-necked Pheasant
2 Black-bellied Plovers
33 Semipalmated Plovers
48 Western Sanpipers
30 Least Sandpipers
7 Baird's Sandpipers
1 Pectoral Sandpiper
54 Short-billed Dowitchers(flying over, and heard)
3 Caspian Terns
2 Horned Larks
62 Am.Pipits
1 Lapland Longspur

Bill's Spit 2pm-2:30pm

1 adult Peregrine Falcon
45 Marbled Godwits
2 Fox Sparrows

Ocean Shores Game Range(acccessed from the south end of Tonquin Ave.)
2:40pm-3:20pm

1 adult Peregrine Falcon
7 Greater Yellowlegs
3 Whimbrel
5 Sanderlings
2 Pectoral Sandpipers
1 Fox Sparrow

Tonquin Ave.(Lake Minard) 3:30pm

1 EARED GREBE

Ocean Shores Game Range/Ocean Shores STP 3:45pm-4pm

1 Western Grebe
24 Brown Pelicans
12 Northern Shovelers
2 Red-breasted Mergansers

North Spinnaker Street(NW of the Ocean Shores STP) 4:05pm

1 adult male AM.KESTREL(photographed,uncommon for Ocean Shores)


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net