Tweets,

I was among the favored treated to the THICK-BILLED MURRE off Westport
today. It was swimming with a loose flock of a dozen Common Murres, most in
basic plumage but two in Alternate, in addition to the Thick-billed. The
Thick-billed stood out as larger, blacker (that the alternate Common's),
with a notably shorter, thicker, more smoothly and evenly down-curved upper
mandible (but showed no white on the "tomium," at least at our distance).
The crown was also more rounded. When it faced us the white of the breast
formed a narrow inverted "V" against the black of the throat. We watched it
at ca. 50 yards for almost five minutes before loosing sight of the flock as
it drifted away. Otherwise rather a quiet day offshore, but smooth, though
with some shower activity to foul the optics. Three BLACK-FOOTED but no
Laysan ALBATROSSES. Lots of CASSIN'S AUKLETS.

After drying out a bit I went looking for shorebirds at the Warrenton
Cannery Road and at Tokeland. On the outer beach at Warrenton Cannery Road
was a flock of 50 SANDERLINGS, 13 SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, 20 WESTERN
SANDPIPERS, and 5 LEAST SANDPIPERS. In Tokeland at the "L" there were 200
DUNLINS and 20 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, while at the Marina I counted 785
MARBLED and 1 BAR-TAILED GODWITS, 11 WILLETS, 26 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS, 2
WHIMBRELS, and 1 KILLDEER. Add the BLACK OYSTERCATCHER, BLACK and RUDDY
TURNSTONE (1), and SURFBIRD on the Westport Jetty coming in and it was quite
a good day for shorebirds in late winter. Species I missed include
Long-billed Curlew, Snowy Plover, Rock Sandpiper, snipe, and yellowlegs. So
there's at least 20 species of shorebirds out there now.

Gene Hunn.
enhunn at attbi.com