Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded the Ocean Shores area along with a morning visit to the Elma-Brady area and the Hoquiam STP before birding most of the day at Ocean Shores. We enjoyed the day that was quite slow at times birdwise,but we encountered good weather with clearing skies with moderate winds at times throughout the day,after dense morning fog and low clouds burned off in isolated locations. We concentrated on both access areas of the Ocean Shores Game Range and an extensive walk made at Damon Point along with Kristin Stewart who joined us at Damon Point at 1pm and birded with us the remainder of our visit to Ocean Shores,as we rechecked Cyber Lake north of Ocean Shores that hosted 2 LESSER YELLOWLEGS(being 1 of 2 birds previously reported by Jason Paulios and Gary Wiles on the 20th)amongst a large flock of Greater Yellowlegs that contained 57 birds and 6 Long-billed Dowitchers. We checked this location upon our morning arrival to Ocean Shores,but NO shorebirds were present possibly due to tidal conditions.
Kristen enjoyed her day at Ocean Shores in search of her target bird,being 5 RED PHALAROPES at the Ocean Shores STP,which we also observed and we managed to walk several areas after 1pm that hosted additional highlights for the day. Our main highlight of the day of several to be listed was a single CLARK'S GREBE that was observed in the sheltered bay bordering the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from behind the Ocean Shores STP)amongst good number of Surf and White-winged Scoters and a 4 nearby Western Grebes for comparision. The bird was actively diving amongst the small waves,but ALL the main key field marks were noted including the very pale gray sides,long orange-yellow bill,and the complete white face(red eye below the dark cap)extending down to the gray sides. Overall birding conditions were much calmer than our two previous visits to Ocean Shores,which today included considerably far less numbers of Red Phalaropes and the general lack of any pelagic species off the Ocean Shores Jetty. Another highlight of the day was an adult dark-morph and light-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK observed together at the extreme west end of the Ocean Shores Game Range in our spotting scope,as Kristin and my mother and I were counting and observing fairly large flocks of shorebirds on the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from Marine View Drive). My mother and I located the adult dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk earlier in the day from the Ocean Shores STP,as it was actively hunting in typical hovering fashion,so locating a second bird was a highlight since there has been an recent overall lack of this species in WA with few sightings reported. Our mammal highlights of the day were 2 GRAY WHALES and a single Dall's Porpoise off the Ocean Shores Jetty.

A list of our key highlights noted during the day at selected locations follows below:

CLARK'S GREBE
1 at the Ocean Shores Game Range

Northern Fulmar
3 intermediate plumaged birds found dead on the beach between the eastern edge of the Ocean Shores Game Range and Damon Point

Tundra Swan
10 birds observed east of Vance Creek Co. Park along Wenzel Slough Rd.

"Dusky"Canada Goose
18 along Brady Loop Rd.(with good numbers of "Cackling"Canada Geese)
12 on the grounds of North Beach High School immediately west of Cyber Lake(amongst 17 "Cackling"Canada Geese)

Canvasback
27 at the Hoquiam STP

Black Scoter
14 at the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from the Ocean Shores STP)
10 at the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from Marine View Drive)*heard calling*

Ruddy Duck
2 at the Hoquiam STP

Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 at the Ocean Shores STP

Cooper's Hawk
1 at the Ocean Shores Game Range

ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK
2 at the Ocean Shores Game Range

Am.Kestrel
1 along Brady Loop Rd.

Merlin
1 along Brady Loop Rd.

Peregrine Falcon
1 adult flying along Marine View Drive west of Damon Point

Ring-necked Pheasant
1 female at Damon Point

Black-bellied Plover
15 at the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from the Ocean Shores STP)
23 at the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from Marine View Drive)

SEMIPALMATED PLOVER
2 at the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from Marine View Drive)

Greater Yellowlegs
57 at Cyber Lake near Ocean Shores(accessed from the North Beach H.S. and S.R.115 north of Ocean Shores)

LESSER YELLOWLEGS
2 at Cyber Lake

Long-billed Curlew
28 at Bill's Spit

RUDDY TURNSTONE
1 observed and heard calling amongst 10 Black-bellied Plovers at the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from the Ocean Shores STP)

Black Turnstone
34 at the Ocean Shores Jetty
1 at the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from the Ocean Shores STP)

Surfbird
92 at the Ocean Shores Jetty

Sanderling
650+ observed along the beach north of the Ocean Shores Jetty
80 at the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from the Ocean Shores STP)
8 at the Ocean Shores Game Range)accessed from Marine View Drive)

Western Sandpiper
65+ at the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from Marine View Drive)

Least Sandpiper
20 at the Hoquiam STP
90+ at the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from Marine View Drive)

ROCK SANDPIPER(dominant subspecies)
10 at the Ocean Shores Jetty

Dunlin
5,500+ observed from Damon Point/Ocean Shores Game Range

Long-billed Dowitcher
6 at Cyber Lake

Wilson's Snipe
1 at Damon Point

RED PHALAROPE
1 at the Ocean Shores Jetty
5 at the Ocean Shores STP(with one additional bird noted at the Ocean Shores Game Range)

Herring Gull
24 at the Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from the Ocean Shores STP)

Black-legged Kittiwake
1 at the Ocean Shores Jetty

Horned Lark
2 at Damon Point

Western Scrub Jay
1 along Hwy.12 at Elma
1 along Brady Loop Rd.

NORTHERN SHRIKE
1 immature at Damon Point

Yellow-rumped Warbler
good numbers of lingering birds observed at several locations within the Ocean Shores vicinity

Western Meadowlark
4 along Brady Loop Rd.


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net

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