Hi tweets,

I went on the Westport trip Saturday, which will be officially tallied by
Bruce LeBar and Gene Ravelas soon enough, so will only mention a few
highlights. It was rather choppy but not as bad as the previous weekend, I
understand. Two South Polar Skuas, great views of several Long-tailed and
Pomarine Jaegers and one very light Parasitic, making for a hat trick of
Stercorariids. Two fine Tufted Puffins, two or more Flesh-footed
Shearwaters, seen well at a herd of Shrimp boats, but no Buller's and just a
handful of Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels. Lots of Red Phalaropes, including one
still with some red, and some Red-Necked Phalaropes for good comparisons.

Afterwards I ran down to the Tokeland Marina and had a learning experience.
The Marbled Godwit flock was most cooperative (about 250 birds), foraging as
the tide came up just below and south of the road out onto the pier at the
Marina. Along with some Whimbrels and Willets there was one godwit that
stood out dramatically. I decided "it must be" an adult female Bar-tailed
Godwit as it was quite cool toned, whitish below, with a nearly solid
blackish brown mantle and greater coverts area and a somewhat paler tail and
rump in flight than the Marbleds. It showed very fine, slightly wavy
vertical lines on the sides of the breast which met across the breast (where
they were reduced to extremely fine barring. Two birders from the boat were
debating the identity of the bird also (I never got their names), and were
skeptical since it did not appear to have a shorter tarsus nor to be truly
white on the tail, though it was a bit smaller than the run of the mill
Marbled. All we had to go on was the Geo guide and Sibley, and only Sibley
purported to illustrate an adult female Bar-tailed, and that on a very small
scale. Anyway, the bird didn't match anything illustrated but was so
strikingly different from all the Marbleds that I couldn't imagine what else
it could be. On returning home I checked Paulson's _Shorebirds of the PNW_
and lo and behold on page 207, upper right foto, was the perfect match, an
alternate plumaged Marbled Godwit. I don't believe I've ever seen this
plumage before, certainly not among the hundreds at Tokeland, which must all
be immature birds, as it takes "at least two years to mature" (Paulson
1993:210). The bird was probably a male, as it was on the small end of the
size range and strikingly if finely barred. Also, according to Paulson,
"Adults can look very dark above in late summer, when pale markings have
worn off." Otherwise, the plumage did not seem worn. Anyway, so much for the
reliability of the argument, "It can't be X, so it must be Y."

I checked the Hoquiam Sewage Ponds at dusk and saw the Pectoral, several
Semipalmated Sandpipers, two Lesser legs, a Semipalmated Plover, and some
Leasts and Westerns. Nice spot.

Gene.