Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded portions of Grays Harbor Co. covering several
known areas which we normally check, but decided to cover the John River
Wildlife Area in more thorough detail,despite the increasing wet,windy
weather. The area is accessed off of S.R.105 and is well described in Bob
Morse's "A Birder's Guide to Coastal Washington" pages 101-102. The area is
mainly accessed by walking from a "loop" trail along the Johns River from
the main parking lot, then continuing through mixed forests habitats. The
best birding is accessed directly from the first portion of the paved trail,
which continues past a photo blind onto a grassy trail continuing into
forest habitats. The open fields,and the now flooded fields bordered by
marshy edges, immediately west of the trail offer close looks at feeding and
roosting shorebirds and waterfowl,especially at high tide. It is possible
the now flooded fields may dry up in the summer, but spring and fall
migration could produce good possible potential for increased shorebird
activity,especially for unusual and rare species such as Ruff, Sharp-tailed
Sandpiper, and Stilt Sandpiper to name a few species of note, BUT only if
appropriate water levels persisted. This relatively unbirded area of Grays
Habor Co. has great potential,and should be be visited more often, if time
allows.

The biggest surprise at the Johns River Wildlife area was observing 18
Semipalmated Plovers amongst the other foraging shorebird species for this
inland location in winter. We have encountered then in winter before in
coastal WA locations, including our higest count of 22 birds at Midway Beach
Rd. on the 20th of January,2001 with 38 there on the 31st of March. All
birds appeared to be winter adults. Our other winter shorebird highlight at
this location was a single LESSER YELLOWLEGS amongst 8 Greater Yellowlegs,
and well observed and heard, showing the obvious smaller size, shorter bill,
and slimmer structure along with the consistant grayish-brown wash on the
upper breast that contained NO streaking.

My mother and I started our day at the Schouweiler Rd./Chehalis Wildlife
Area west of Elma, then proceeded west to Brady Loop Rd., where we ran into
Larry Heinz of Rochester on his way to Tokeland, then we ourselves continued
our way west to the Johns River Wildlife Area, where the weather conditions
were very wet, but we decided to walk the 1/2 mile paved trail out to the
flooded area, which is south of the main parking lot. We stopped by this
area on the 2nd of February, but did not walk the paved trail, as we planned
to visit this location again after finding a few shorebirds. Today despite
the wet,windy weather we managed to locate and observed several notable
highlights including several species of shorebirds,as they actively foraged
within the large flooded area, and the marshy edges at close range, but the
conditions were much decreased on our return trip back to the parking lot.
The trail past the photo blind comes very close to the flooded area,and
allowed great views of most of the species observed.

After birding the Johns Wildlife Area we headed east to the Hoquim STP, then
worked our way home, making a fairly quick return trip to Brady Loop Rd.,
then stopping at Vance Creek County Park. A list of our most notable
highlights follows including a few additional species of note.

Schouweiler Rd. wetland 10:25am-10:30am

1 male BARROW'S GOLDENEYE(with 3 female Common Goldeneyes)
1 Pileated Woodpecker

Hwy.12 at MP 16,west of Elma 10:35am

1 Western Scrub Jay

Brady Loop Rd. 10:40am-11:05am,2:15pm

38 Tundra Swans
1 Trumpeter Swan
3 male Eurasian Wigeon
14 Ring-necked Ducks
7 Lesser Scaup
2 Ruddy Ducks
1 Rough-legged Hawk
2 Dunlin
13 Barn Swallows
1 Varied Thrush

MP 45.2 along S.R.105,west of South Aberdeen 11:30am,12:40pm

4 Greater White-fronted Geese
2 "Cackling"Canada Geese
2 "Aleutian"Canada Geese

Johns River Wildlife Area 11:45am-12:30pm

1 EURASIAN GREEN-WINGED TEAL(with 28 Am.Green-winged Teal)
1 pair of Canvasbacks
2 male REDHEAD
1 Peregrine Falcon
18 Semipalmated Plovers
47 Killdeer
8 Greater Yellowlegs
1 LESSER YELLOWLEGS
62 Western Sandpipers
14 Least Sandpipers
310+ Dunlin
2 Barn Swallows
3 Am.Pipits

Hoquim STP 1pm-1:35pm

3 Pied-billed Grebes
108 Northern Shovelers
87 Gadwall
62 Greater Scaup
27 Lesser Scaup
14 Common Goldeneyes
42 Bufflehead
4 Ruddy Ducks
360+ Mew Gulls
11 Ring-billed Gulls
1 second year Herring Gull
1 first-year Thayer's Gull

Vance Creek County Park 2:45pm

6 Black-bellied Plovers(flying over)
2 Common Snipes


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net