Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded the Ocean Shores vicinity,including two visits
to the Hoquim STP to and from destinations and a short visit to Mud Bay in
Thurston Co.The main highlight of the day was our first visit to the Hoquim
STP at 12pm with a good variety of shorebirds that were observed foraging
along the exposed sediment of the west end of the main pond among other
species. We managed to locate 4 juvenile SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS amongst a
foraging flock of Western and Least Sandpipers at the west end of the main
pond along with a few additional shorebird species,including 1 PECTORAL
SANDPIPER. The main pond is getting lower so facility employees can measure
the solid sediment levels,allowing good shorebird diversity. Minor sediment
levels exist at the southeast corner of the pond as well with varying levels
of diversity. We did not relocate the first-year Franklin's Gull nor did we
see the Willet that Bruce Fischer reported from his visit to the Hoquim STP.
Nevertheless the main pond of the Hoquim STP shows great potential of
shorebird diversity. We did encounter a flock of 54 LONG-BILLED CURLEWS on
the exposed mudflats immediately south of the main pond of the Hoquim
STP,which was our personal largest flock of this species for this location.
Throughout the remainder of the day my mother and I visited several other
locations within our normal route to Ocean Shores,along with a visit to
Copalis Beach at Griffiths-Priday State Park,where we encountered a small
shorebird flock along the Copalis River that contained our fifth juvenile
Semipalmated Sandpiper of the day and 1 Lesser Yellowlegs among a few more
common shorebird species. Along the ocean beach at Griffiths-Priday S.P. we
encountered a first large flock of California Gulls that contained 450+
birds of varying ages(where we have encountered good numbers of gulls last
late summer/fall),before heading south to Ocean Shores,and at Bill's Spit
during an evening visit at incoming tide was a very impressive flock of
2,300+ California Gulls. Shorebird diversity at Ocean Shores was quite low
with far less shorebird numbers than in previous visits, as noted along the
ocean beach between Driftwood Drive and Marine View Drive and at several
other areas within Ocean Shores,but we managed to locate our second and
final PECTORAL SANDPIPER of the day at the Ocean Shores Golf Course,and 4
Baird's sandpipers at Damon Point,being our shorebird highlights for Ocean
Shores.A list of our total highlights for the day follow at selected
locations and times:

Mud Bay,Thurston Co. 10am

4 Greater Yellowlegs
120 Western Sandpipers
7 Least Sandpipers

Hwy.12 at Elma 10:40am

1 Western Scrub Jay

Hwy.12 at Satsop 10:45am

1 Westernb Scrub Jay

Hoquim STP 12pm-12:35pm,6pm-6:15pm

9 Green-winged Teal
2 Northern Pintail
37 Semipalmated Plovers
3 Lesser Yellowlegs
54 LONG-BILLED CURLEWS
4 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS
145+ Western Sandpipers
62 Least Sandpipers
7 Baird's Sandpipers
1 PECTORAL SANDPIPER
4 Long-billed Dowitchers
8 Bonaparte's Gulls

Copalis Beach/Griffiths-Priday SP 1pm-1:30pm

68+ Green-winged Teal
1 Common Merganser
6 Semipalmated Plovers
1 Greater Yellowlegs
1 Lesser Yellowlegs
1 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER
9 Western Sandpipers
23 Least Sandpipers
450+ California Gulls

Mammals:

5(1 family)of Racoons

Ocean Shores Golf Course 2pm-2:10pm

1 Least Sandpiper
1 PECTORAL SANDPIPER
1 juvenile Red-necked Phalarope

Grand Canal spillway(accessed from Marine View Drive) 2:15pm-2:25pm

4 Green Herons

Damon Point 2:30pm-3:30pm

38 Brown Pelicans
2 Semipalmated Plovers
1 Wandering Tattler
8 Western Sandpipers
17 Least Sandpipers
1 Short-billed Dowitcher
1 juvenile Red-necked Phalarope
3 Horned Larks

Driftwood Drive/Marine View Drive beach access 3:45-4:45pm

94 Black-bellied Plovers
24 Semipalmated Plovers
1 Ruddy Turnstone
3 Black Turnstones
5 Red Knots
3,500+ Sanderlings
28 Western Sandpipers
11 Short-billed Dowitchers

Bill's Spit 5:20pm

2,300+ California Gulls


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net