Subject: 5/18/02, Seattle - Ocean Shores
Date: May 18 20:41:35 2002
From: Netta Smith - nettasmith at attbi.com


Hello tweeters,

I started the day with a DUSKY FLYCATCHER in my yard in Seattle. Great looks
for a few minutes, and, although it didn't call, I'm confident about it.
Relatively slender bill with base of lower mandible yellowish, prominent
eyering, medium gray breast and pale yellowish-white belly, relatively short
wings and long tail, tail flipped up. These marks in concert elmiinate all
other WA species.

We looped around Wenzel Slough Rd and Brady Loop Rd on the way down to Grays
Harbor and saw lots of common breeding birds but nothing at all unusual.
Four Whimbrels on Wenzel Slough Rd were the only migrants.

At the Hoquiam sewage pond there was an amazing diversity of ducks,
considering how late in spring it is: Green-winged and Blue-winged teal,
Mallards, Gadwalls, N. Shovelers, Greater Scaups (most common sp), and 3
pairs of REDHEADS, the biggest surprise. I wonder which of those species is
intending to breed there.

On the beach at Ocean Shores there was one big shorebird flock among the
hundreds of people, horses, mopeds, kites, etc. I often wonder about the
claims in the environmental media of how important birding is in America,
when we saw only a couple of birders all day and a thousand or more people
engaged in other sorts of recreation, much of which was bird-disturbing
rather than bird-appreciating. About 500 of them for every one of us, it
seems to me, and this in a state with a high awareness of nature and the
environment.

Anyway, back to the shorebird flock: it contained 25 Marbled Godwits, about
250 Sanderlings, 75 Semipalmated Plovers, 20 Dunlins, and a Short-billed
Dowitcher. We were at the coast with the tide well out, so there were
doubtless more shorebirds somewhere. A provocative sighting was of 2 Semi
Plovers on the beach at Peninsula Ct, just S of Bill's Spit, on the east
side of the peninsula. They looked like a male and female and were behaving
like a breeding pair, very tame and localized, staying very close to the
shore and talking to one another. I hope someone will check on these birds
over the next month or so. Semi Plovers nested on the Damon Point spit
years ago.

In a flock of cowbirds near the base of the Damon Point Spit was a female
YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, a species that often turns up at Ocean Shores in
spring migration.

In years of birding at Ocean Shores, I never saw Turkey Vultures there, but
we saw 3 today, including one south of Damon Point. I think the species has
increased rather substantially in our state in recent decades.

The big ponds on the way in to the Quinalt Resort at the north end of Ocean
Shores look very good for dragonflies. Swift Forktails were common there,
an interesting large damselfly endemic to the Pacific Northwest coast and
characteristically early in flight season. The blue and black males rest
flat on lily pads and open ground.

In Grays Harbor THE prominent bird was the Common Tern. There must have
been 1,000 of them (more than moped-riders!) feeding from outside the harbor
to well back in it, like confetti sprinkled everywhere in the rays of the
afternoon sun. Parasitic Jaegers were taking advantage of the concentration,
and at several places I saw at least 3 jaegers chasing a single tern, once 4
jaegers. There may have been a dozen or more of that kleptoparasitic
species. There were also small flocks of Rhinoceros Auklets, a smattering
of immature Black-legged Kittiwakes, and a variety of other seabirds. No
shearwaters or pelicans seen, only Red-throated among the loons and not many
of them. Interestingly, most of the gulls on the ocean side were
Glaucous-winged, and we saw very few Westerns until we got on the harbor
side, presumably birds from nesting islands in Grays Harbor.

There were lots of harbor seals, a few California sea lions, and a very
interesting large dolphin or small whale (perhaps 15' long, quite pale
brown, prominent pointed dorsal fin) that came into the harbor and gave me a
couple of brief looks, then disappeared.

The pond on Damon Point that used to be fresh or brackish has changed
dramatically since it became connected to the harbor and probably will never
be a magnet for unusual birds again, sadly. One Western Gull was the only
bird there today.

It was altogether a pleasant day at the coast, although fewer people would
have made it more so.

Dennis Paulson
--
Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115