Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded several familiar coastal locations, including
Point Grenville in northern Grays Harbor Co.,just south of Taholah(accessed
from S.R.109),which we were invited by Denny Granstrand after running into
him and his wife and others at Bottle Beach at 8:45am. We birded with Denny
for a short while at Bottle Beach,then met him at Point Grenville at
11:45am,after doing some additional birding on the way. Shorebird numbers
overall were still fairly good at most locations that we visited including
increased numbers of Western Sandpiper, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper among other
shorebird species,despite hitting the outgoing tide at Bottle Beach and
along S.R.109 bordering Bowerman Basin in the morning,then the afternoon
incoming tide being too far out with incoming tides too late in the day to
stay at any coastal location. Our best highlight species of the day was also
our last,being a single breeding plumaged PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER amongst a
foraging flock of 52 Black-bellied Plovers at 5:50pm along Hwy.12 at MP
16.7(immediately east of Keys Rd. near Satsop)in a recently plowed field on
the south side of Hwy.12. My mother and I quickly picked out the Pacific
Golden Plover from the flock of noticeably larger Black-bellied Plovers by
the more slimmer build and structure, and bill of the bird. The overall
color and pattern of the back was not as crisp as we would have been
expected for being May,due to the more faded gold outer fringes,but the
diagnostic fairly narrow white neck strip was noticed in most angles
extending well down to the flanks with some black barring noticed along the
flanks borded by the white. The dark brown to bronze/gold pattern extended
from the head down onto the back,but as mentioned before we noticed the
faded brown coloration of the outer fringes on the back borded by brighter
golden tones within the faded brown,so it is possible this bird was a female
in spring molt. The bird was only well observed foraging with the nearby
Black-bellied Plovers along Hwy.12 for 10 minutes due to being directly on
the shoulder as we were headed eastbound,but the entire observation was
adequate in our spotting scope and proved to be our first spring record for
this species WA.

Throughout the day we managed to encounter fairly decent weather and viewing
conditions with only occasional wind at times at a few locations,but NO rain
as forcasted locally. My mother and I observed good numbers of migrating
Greater White-fronted Geese at 5 locations to be listed below,as well as
good numbers of Savannah Sparrows and Purple Finches at a few locations in
addition to migratory shorebirds. We also encountered the presumed same
flock of 95 Whimbrel
foraging in a recently plowed field during our morning visit to Wenzel
Slough Rd., which we encountered last week further east along Hwy.12 near
Elma,BUT these birds could not be relocated during our evening visit to both
of the listed locations. Our relatively well scouted visit to Pt.Grenville
from 11:45am-1:30pm produced 4 adult TUFTED PUFFINS observed approxiatmetly
120 yards offshore of the northern portion of Point Grenville,but upon a
second search at the exact location 15 minutes later could not prove to
relocate the birds. My mother and I also located our first WANDERING
TATTLERS of the season at two locations, including 1 single bird at
Pt.Grenville and up to 5 birds noted at the Ocean Shores Jetty among other
species and observed by many other observers, including Denny Granstrand, a
Birdathon team led by Ken and Nel Batker of Tacoma,and other observers.

Listed locations and times follow by a list of our additional most notable
species of the day:

Wenzel Slough Rd./Keys Rd.(two visits) 7:25am-7:50am,5:45pm
Bottle Beach/Ocosta Third Street 8:30am-9:10am
Johns River Wildlife Area 9:15am-10am
Hoquim STP/Bowerman Basin 10:50am-11am
Point Grenville 11:45am-1:30pm
Griffiths-Priday State Park(Copalis Beach) 2pm
Ocean Shores and vicinity 3pm-4:15pm
Brady Loop Rd. 5pm-5:30pm


Pacific Loon
300+ off of Pt.Grenville

Brown Pelican
3 off Point Grenville
25 off the Ocean Shores Jetty

Greater White-fronted Goose
4 at the Johns River Widlife Area
240+ at Bowerman Basin
270+(in three seperate focks)flying north over Pt.Grenville
160 flying north and over the Ocean Shores Jetty
154 flying west over S.R.109 at MP 7,north of Ocean Shores

Wood Duck
1 male at the Johns River WA

MANDARIN DUCK(escapee)
1 male at the Johns River WA

Cinnamon Teal
1 male at the Hoquim STP
1 pair at the Johns River WA

Black Scoter
14 behind the Ocean Shores STP at the western portion of the O.S.Game Range

Red-breasted Merganser
1 pair along the Johns River,south of the Johns River bridge among others
noted on normal saltwater habitats throughout the day

Peregrine Falcon
1 adult at Pt.Grenville
1 adult along S.R.109 at Pacific Beach
1 adult feeding on prey along Wenzel Slough Rd.(evening visit)

Ring-necked Pheasant
2 at Ocean Shores

Sora(heard only)
1 along Brady Loop Rd.

Black-bellied Plover
1 along Wenzel Slough Rd.
45 at Bottle Beach
52 along Hwy.12 at MP 16.7

Semipalmated Plover
4 along Wenzel Slough Rd.
27 at Bottle Beach
5 along Brady Loop Rd.

Black Oystercatcher
5 at Pt.Grenville

Greater Yellowlegs
3 along Wenzel Slough Rd.
16 at Bottle Beach
22 at the Johns River WA
4 along Brady Loop Rd.

Lesser Yellowlegs
9 along Wenzel Slough Rd.
6 at the Johns River WA
5 along Brady Loop Rd.

Whimbrel(additional sighting)
2 at Bill's Spit at Ocean Shores

Long-billed Curlew
1 flying north over Pt.Grenville
7 at Griffiths-Priday SP

Marbled Godwit
160+ at Bill's Spit at Ocean Shores

Ruddy Turnstone
4 at Bottle Beach
2 at the Ocean Shores Jetty

Black Turnstone
2 at the Ocean Shores Jetty

Red Knot
34 at Bottle Beach

Sanderling
2 at Bottle Beach

Short-billed Dowitcher
8 along Wenzel Slough Rd.
1,200+ at Bottle Beach
800+ at Bill's Spit
15 along Brady Loop Rd.

Long-billed Dowitcher
12 along Wenzel Slough Rd.
8+ at Ocosta Third St. near Bottle Beach

Bonaparte's Gull
5 at the Hoquim STP

Black-legged Kittiwake
43 off Pt.Grenville
375-400+ off the Ocean Shores Jetty(with most numbers feeding well offshore
in heavy rip lines at the mouth of Grays Harbor)

Marbled Murrelet
1 off Pt.Grenville
2 off the Ocean Shores Jetty

Band-tailed Pigeon
165+ along Wenzel Slough Rd.

Vaux's Swift
4 over S.R.109 at Johns River

Am.Pipit
12 along Wenzel Slough Rd.

Orange-crowned Warbler
9 at Pt.Grenville

Yellow Warbler
1 at Pt.Grenville

Savannah Sparrow(high count for a location)
74 at the Johns River WA

Golden-crowned Sparrow
1 at the Johns River WA
22 along Brady Loop Rd.

Purple Finch
16 at the Johns River WA
6 at Pt.Grenville



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net