Hi Tweeters,

Jason Paulios and I drove over to Ocean Shores today and had a pretty good
day along with some beautiful weather. Our main highlight was the small
numbers of Red Phalaropes seen at most of the locations that we stopped at
near the south end of the Ocean Shores peninsula. Anyone wanting good
looks of this bird should visit the area soon. Other highlights were:

Swampy pond at North Beach High School
LESSER YELLOWLEGS - 1 with a flock of 17 Greater Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs - 23
Dowitcher sp - 6

North Jetty
RED PHALAROPE - 4 swimming close to the jetty inside the harbor mouth
Surfbird - about 35
Rock Sandpiper - 4
Black Turnstone - 5
Ford Pickup Truck - 1 stuck in the sand up to the axles and driven by a
young couple from Idaho who didn't quite understand what beach driving was
all about yet.

Ocean Shores Sewage Treatment Plant
RED PHALAROPE - 5
Lapland Longspur - 1

Game Range behind the Sewer Plant
Black Scoter - 10
Herring Gull - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
RED PHALAROPE - 1 freshly dead bird found in the tall grass and shrubs.
It was severely emaciated, as indicated by its sharp keel.

Damon Point
RED PHALAROPE - 2 seen well close to shore near the parking lot

We also stopped at Elma on the way home to look for the Ruff along H-12
but had no luck. However, we did have a flock of 20-25 Black-bellied
Plovers fly over us, which contained 2 somewhat smaller non-plover
shorebirds. It was tempting to think that one may have been the Ruff.
The entire flock flew off toward Brady Loop, so perhaps some more
searching of the entire area will pay off for someone.

Vance Creek County Park
REDHEAD - 1 female is still present in a mixed flock of Ring-necked Ducks
and scaup

Gary Wiles
Tumwater, WA
wilesharkey at yahoo.com



__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com