Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I ventured to Ocean Shores for continuing shorebird
migration that is still apparent at many locations within the Ocean Shores
area. Our main purpose of the trip was to relocate the adult female
BAR-TAILED GODWIT in partial breeding plumage that we observed on the 14th
and 21st of July and to obtain photographs of the bird for documentation. We
were able to do both tasks after relocating the adult female Bar-tailed
Godwit at the base of Damon Point amongst a flock of Marbled Godwits and
both species of dowitchers upon our arrival at 12pm at the Ocean Shores
Marina. We immediately located the Bar-tailed Godwit from the east edge of
the marina as it foraged loosely with the other shorebirds on the exposed
mudflats at the base of Damon Point. The bird allowed close approach and
views along with obtainable photographs that were taken during our visit to
the location until 1pm during incoming tide. As tide conditions changed the
shorebirds became nervous and at times flew up and around the Ocean Shores
Marina area with only a 1/3 of the flock returning to Damon Point and
continuing to forage and roost,while the other shorebirds dispersed for
other unknown locations.

Shorebird migration was still notable as mentioned earlier with the best
areas as in past visits to Ocean Shores included the Driftwood Drive beach
access and the shoreline between Bill's Spit to Damon Point. We only checked
a portion of the normal araes that we normally check at Ocean Shores,as our
best and most diverse shorebird flocks were thoroughly checked and scanned
through at the Driftwood Drive beach access,allowing time to be spent
viewing the shorebird flocks. Overall shorebird numbers were resticted to
the previously listed locations during and after high tide with several
species that were increased compared to previous visits. Our main route
consisted of checking the Bill's Spit vicinity then continuing south to
Damon Point,then southwest to the Ocean Shores Jetty and our final stop made
at the Driftwood Drive beach access. The weather was quite favorable at
Ocean Shores with mostly cloudy skies and a near constant wind comapred to
very hot temperatures in Tacoma when we arrived home. A list of our notable
highlights follows for the day at slected locations:

Hwy.12 east of Brady 10am

1 Western Scrub Jay

Cyber Lake 10:45am-10:55am

67 Greater Yellowlegs
6 Short-billed Dowitchers

Bill's Spit and vicinity 11:05am-11:30am

67 Whimbrel
32 Marbled Godwits
220+ Western Sandpipers
260+ Short-billed Dowitchers
42 Heermann's Gulls
160+ California Gulls
24 Caspian Terns

Damon Point 12pm-1pm(incoming tide)

46 Brown Pelicans
14 Black-bellied Plovers
1 Semipalmated Plovers
1 Greater Yellowlegs
43 Whimbrel
1 BAR-TAILED GODWIT
58 Marbled Godwits
1 Black Turnstone
1 Surfbird
5 Red Knots
670+ Western Sandpipers
8 Least Sandpipers
330+ Short-billed Dowitchers
24+ Long-billed Dowitchers

Ocean Shores Jetty 1:15pm-2:15pm

36 Brown Pelicans
28 Surf Scoters
13 White-winged Scoters
2 Wandering Tattlers
180+ Heermann's Gulls
45 California Gulls
13 Caspian Terns
17 Common Murres
14 Pigeon Guillemots
4 Marbled Murrelets
54+ Rhinoceros Auklets
3 Tufted Puffins

Driftwood Drive beach access 2:25pm-3:35pm(outgoing tide)

14 Brown Pelicans
8 White-winged Scoters
420+ Black-bellied Plovers
54 Semipalmated Plovers
2 Ruddy Turnstones
58 Red Knots
80+ Sanderlings
880+ Western Sandpipers
1 DUNLIN
350+ Short-billed Dowitchers
55+ Heermann's Gulls
15 California Gulls


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net