Hi Everyone--

Marcia Marvin and I did a bit of birding at the North Jetty and the marina in Ocean Shores yesterday (11/19) from 11 to around 3. The sea was pretty angry, but with care it was possible to point a scope at the ocean. A dark-morph NORTHERN FULMAR came within binocular range, and it or another one was farther out toward the navigation buoys. There were about 10 BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES of various ages at close range, 20 or so BONAPARTE'S GULLS, and a flock of about 15 RED PHALAROPES. I got a distant view of what appeared to be a winter adult SABINE'S GULL (the black on the forward side of the wing was a wedge, not a stripe, and there were a number of young kittiwakes around for comparison). On the beach side of the jetty were two flocks of rockpipers. One flock was 8 BLACK TURNSTONES and one SURFBIRD, the other was 15 SURFBIRDS and one ROCK SANDPIPER. Once the rain slowed down, they all went back to the ocean side. At the marina, 200 or so DUNLIN, a SANDERLING, and 10 SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS were feeding in the exposed mudflats. MALLARDS were common in the median strip of Pt. Brown Avenue, showing what 3 inches of rain in a day and a half will do. Rain and darkness precluded stopping for the Ruff in Elma. I've had troopers tell me not to bird from the side of a freeway before (in California, it's against the law), and I'm not sure what the rule is there.

Mark Miller
Vancouver, WA
snowyowl98683 at msn.com