Hello Tweets,

Yesterday(July 10th)my mother and I birded at Ocean Shores and
vicinity,mainly to recheck early fall shorebird migration and diversity at
many of te main roosting/feeding locations that normally host good numbers
of shorebirds with appropriate tide conditions. We managed to locate
increased numbers of adult Western Sandpipers at most locations(but few
other shorebird species),including 3 very large flocks containing 11,000+
birds noted at two locations including:

8,500+ roosting/feeding along the beach shoreline between both Driftwood
Drive and Marine View Drive,including Butter Clam Street that are ALL
accessed off of Ocean Shores Blvd. and are north of the Ocean Shores Jetty.

2,500+ at the base of Damon Point and the protected jetty of the Ocean
Shores Marina.

In general Western Sandpipers were on the increase at ALL locations,while
other shorebird species were not seen or occured in much lower numbers,but
this was are largest flock of Western Sandpipers at one location and expect
numbers to continue to increase through July. WE observeed several other
species within the Ocean Shores area with our only other non-shorebird
highlight being 3 adult TUFTED PUFFINS off the west tip of the Ocean Shores
Jetty during an afternoon visit as 2 adults were seen together flying south
about 30 yeards of the jetty,while the other adult was observed in a flock
of 11 Rhinerceros Auklets flying the same direction within a 5 minute time
period of the first sighting.

Our day started out good as we left Tacoma with 4 notable species including:

1 Green Heron
1 adult Cooper's Hawk
1 Pileated Woodpecker
1 Western Scrub Jay(observed in Lakewood along 100th St.)

Another Green Heron was observed at the Hwy.101 and I-5 interchange in
Tumwater,Thurston Co.

We checked the Hoquim STP and noted a few species including:

2 Pied-billed Grebes
1 male Greater Scaup
1 pair of Northern Pintail
5 Least Sandpipers

40 Greater Yellowlegs were noted on the bridge across Cyber Lake along
S.R.115(just north of Ocean Shores),as was a calling Olive-sided Flycatcher.

At Ocean Shores a few other notable species than previous ly mentioned
included:

65+ Sooty Shearwaters
88+ Brown Pelicans
13 Northern Pintails
44 Surf Scoters
12 White-winged Scoters
1 adult Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 adult Peregrine Falcon
1 Lesser Yellowlegs
1 Whimbrel
45+ Least Sandpipers
22 Short-billed Dowitchers
125+ Heermann's Gulls
240+ California Gulls
24 Caspian Terns
43 Rhinoceros Auklets
1 Pacific-slope Flycatcher
4 Horned Larks
2 Orange-crowned Warblers


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net