Hey Tweeters,
I birded in southwest WA with Carol Schulz today, trying to find the
recently reported Tropical Kingbirds. We had no kingbirds for the day,
unfortunately, but it was a fair day nonetheless, with clear skies most of
the time. First birding was a quick scan of South Bay (just east of Westport)
from the bridge on Hwy 105, which had 7 GREAT EGRETS. Next short stop was
Midway Beach near Grayland. Already we had 3 PEREGRINE FALCONS for the day
before 9:00am, and we guessed that it was going to be a good day for raptors.
At Tokeland, it was very quiet at first. The only birds present when
we arrived at near low tide were 4 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS and a WILLET. A
male columbarius MERLIN was coursing the bushes and keeping all the
passerines out of view. As the tide came in, so did the shorebirds. Before
long we had hundreds of them. Seeing nothing else to do, I spent some time
counting them 1 by 1. Our totals here were the following:

Marbled Godwits - 667 landed, plus at least 150 which flew past
Willet - 16
Whimbrel - 3
Long-billed Curlew - 2 (fly-by)
Black-bellied Plover - 3 (fly-by)
Long-billed Dowitcher - 14
Dunlin - 4
Western Sandpiper - 1
Lesser Yellowlegs - 1 (quite late)
Greater Yellowlegs - 2
Black Turnstone - 1
Double-crested Cormorant - 6000+ (constantly overhead in long streams in
early morning, flying from roost site?)
Northern Pintail - 4000+

From there we continued south, birding along Hwy 101. Approx. 3 miles
west of South Bend in a field were 5 WHITE-TAILED KITES and 1 ROUGH-LEGGED
HAWK, as well as the usuals. At Bay Center we checked for the Palm Warbler
and Tropical Kingbird that have been reported in the last week. Again, had no
luck with either. The only birds in that area were 4 or 5 COMMON (certainly
WILSON'S) SNIPE. At Julia Butler Hanson NWR, the first bird seen was the
BLACK PHOEBE, and it hung around the whole time we were there. Also at the
refuge were 7 WHITE-TAILED KITES and 1 NORTHERN SHRIKE. Mammals were
Roosevelt Elk, Columbian White-tailed Deer, 12+ Nutria, and River Otter. Our
10th raptor species of the day was a COOPER'S HAWK near Kelso in the evening.

Good birding,

Charlie Wright
Birdking88 at aol.com
Sumner, WA