Hello Charles & Inland birders,
Since you mention that the reason wy birders not finding this Scoters of the
early October arrival.You got a good point on this.Looking back to this year
July on the coast, expecial "Ocean Shores"We got big movement of Shorebirds
already on the first part of July.Most birders dont think even going that
early for the big migration so early.Maybe that is wy we encoutred so many
Bar-tailed Godwit's this year and so early as 7-13- and an early Pacific
Golden Plover on 7-7.Every time and there where many times this year we
went,i expected the beaches deserted,what happen in previous years,but to
our surprise,we had always and every time large groups in the tousend's of
Shorebirds more so in July this year than on later date as August and
September.It was one of the "BEST" migration sofar in Ocean Shores since i
been birding,and we both cover the coastline often.

Ruth Sullivan
Tacoma Wash.

"



----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Swift" <charless at moscow.com>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 9:09 AM
Subject: Surf Scoters in northern Idaho/eastern WA


> >From my short (5 years) perspective here in north-central Idaho, we are
> seeing unprecedented numbers of Surf Scoters this fall in Idaho. In most
> falls we may get 1 or 2 sightings of individual Surf Scoters from the
> regularly covered locations. We do get fairly light coverage overall but
> Mann Lake (Nez Perce Co, ID) is birded somewhat regularly from September
> through November. We get pretty excited about a single Surf Scoter. In the
> past 2 weeks we have had flocks of 5 and 3 in a county w/ very few bodies
of
> water and probably no previous records and at Mann Lake up to 18 birds -
> possibly a record count for Idaho. I think we may not have realized that
> there are regular movements in early October so perhaps now we will be
> looking and finding them more regularly. Still I think this fall may be
> somewhat unusual in terms of numbers. Also notable is that we have had
fair
> weather all fall and we would be more likely to expect larger fallouts on
> smaller bodies of water during inclement periods if large numbers of birds
> transverse the area regularly.
>
> Eastern Washington is probably a different story and may have benefited
by
> increased coverage on the larger bodies of water. On October 14, 2001 we
> found 6 White-winged Scoters on Sprague Lake (Adams Co.) and 16 (13 Surf &
3
> White-winged) at Rock Lake (Whitman Co.) after passage of a cold front. So
> perhaps scoters should be expected in e. WA in October but from comments
of
> some observers the numbers for this fall are unexpected. It would be
> interesting to hear from folks in southern Alberta. I looked at emails
> posted on their web site but have mot corresponded directly with any local
> birders.
>
> In and case it is exciting to know that there is still a lot to learn
about
> movements of birds through our area, especially east of the Cascades.
>
> thanks, Charles.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Charles E. Swift
> Moscow, ID, USA
> charless at moscow.com
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>