The Washington BirdBox is a voice mailbox sponsored by the Washington Ornithological
Society. To leave a message about a notable sighting, or to listen to the messages from the
last seven days, call (206) 281-9172 and follow the prompts.

Rachel Lawson is system administrator. She can be reached at rachellawson at qwest.net.

Please address any corrections (such as errors in place names or observers) to the
transcriber, Jane Hadley, jhadle at drizzle.com, 206-328-7605.

Sunday September 16, 2001, 5:25 p.m. Hi this is Greg Toffic. I'm just leaving the Snohomish
Water Treatment Plant, and there are currently two STILT SANDPIPERS there. The water
level in the main pond is lower than I have ever seen it before, and, consequently, there's an
awful lot of exposed area, so there's very good shorebird habitat. There are also a couple
of SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS there, and KILDEER and LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER and
WESTERN SANDPIPERS. Not too much in the way of ducks, but, again, exceptionally
good habitat, so a good place to keep in mind the next few weeks. Also at the Everett Water
Treatment Plant today about 3 o'clock was a first winter FRANKLIN'S GULL. I checked back
at about 4 and couldn't relocate that bird, but about half of the gull flock had dispersed, so
I'm sure that it's around in the area somewhere. Good birding.

Saturday, September 15, 2001, 2:03 p.m. Hello, this is Bill LaFramboise calling at 509-627-
3695. Today, Nancy and I were at Damon Point at Ocean Shores. We relocated the three
BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS that had been seen earlier. They were all the way at the
end of the point on the northern shore. They're feeding along the washed-up seaweed at the
northern end of the point. There were several other shorebirds there as well, but that was
certainly the highlight. Thanks, bye.

Thursday, September 13, 2001, 2:01 p.m. Hi, Tom Aversa at 206-782-7342, reporting on a trip
yesterday to east central Washington, looking for migrant landbirds and shorebirds. Not a
lot of landbirds around. Did find a few. There was MACGILLIVRAY'S and YELLOW
WARBLER at Vantage, along with some RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES. Moving
eastwards, Sprague Lake, there was also MACGILLIVRAY'S and YELLOW WARBLER,
couple of YELLOW-THROATS, a late BANK SWALLOW, eight BAIRD'S SANDPIPER with
about 100 WESTERNS, two SANDERLINGS, and four juvenile BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS.
At the Washtucna thicket, Bassett Park there, there was a late LAZULI BUNTING and a few
EMPIDS. Nothing real notable in there. Also five PECTORAL SANDPIPERS at the sewage
lagoons there. At Othello, there were 32 SANDHILL CRANES back, four AVOCETS, a RED-
NECKED PHALAROPE, and three BAIRD'S SANDPIPER, along with the more common
peeps.

Monday, September 10, 2001, 4:48 p.m. Hi, this is Greg Toffic. Today I birded from Whatcom
County to Snohomish County. This morning, I found the SNOWY EGRET at the boat launch
right away and took a little bit of time as the tide was coming in to scan the shorebirds in the
southeast corner of Boundary Bay. And there were, oh, probably 300 BLACK-BELLIED
PLOVERS and a few other scattered birds - KILDEER and GREATER YELLOW LEGS.
There were two MARBLED GODWITS and there was one AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. I
birtded down through the Skagit, stopped in a few locations, and really didn't find much in the
way of shorebirds at all. The ponds at the West 90 were nearly empty. There were some
LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS and WESTERN SANDPIPERS, but very few. And throughout
there were a few GREATER YELLOW LEGS throughout the day, but really kind of a sparse
shorebirding day. At the Stanwood Water Treatment Plant, there was one PECTORAL
SANDPIPER and four juvenile RED-NECKED PHALAROPES. Good luck and good birding.

The Bird Box was last checked at 10 p.m. Sunday, September 16, 2001.