Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded the route from Ocean Shores to
Tokeland,beginning at the Hoquiam STP,then continuing onto Ocean Shores,
then travelling to Westport and finishing the day off at Tokeland. We had a
very rewarding diverse day birding and weather wise with several key
highlights to be listed below. The weather was very good with clearing skies
after the low morning clouds burned off with some wind at Ocean Shores,but
calm conditions the remainder of the day. Our main highlight of the day was
our personal first ROCK SANDPIPERS of the season with 2 adult birds of the
dominant subspecies at the Ocean Shores Jetty amongst 118 Surfbirds and 24
Black Turnstones at 11am during incoming tide. The birds actively foraged
within the other "rockbirds" at close range midspan of the jetty,but due to
tourists on the jetty on a return back from the end of the jetty the entire
large flock of rock shorebirds were more nervous and flew more often from
different areas on the jetty and never came too close to the mainland beach.
Another highlight at the Ocean Shores jetty was flushing a single
SHORT-EARED OWL from it's presumed roost in an exposed rock crevise near
midspan of the jetty,which the bird flew off west into the ocean and circled
a few times, as it was pursued and mobbed by gulls for up to 20 minutes
before the bird flew back to the jetty and found another safe roosting spot.

On a bird behavior side of a highlight for the day we observed a single
Long-billed Dowitcher resting on the back of a Marbled Godwit during our
visit to the Westport Marina(accessed from Wilson St.). The mingled flock of
92 Marbled Godwits and 12 Long-billed Dowitchers were observed from the
eastern most dock in the marina basin,as they rested on a partial remaining
portion of land during slowly outgoing tide in which a single Long-billed
Dowitcher hopped onto a Marbled Godwit as the flock shifted around nervously
from an oncoming boat for a few minutes,then hopped back down allowing a
great interaction within the flock. The Marbled Godwit didn't seem to mind
the extra weight on it's back within the few minutes,so perhaps this
behavior was just due to the shuffling around of the flock.

A list of our highlights of the day follow at selected times and locations:

Hwy.12 at Brady 9am

1 Western Scrub Jay

Hoquiam STP 9:40am-10am

28 Brown Pelicans
6 "Dusky"Canada Geese
1 BLUE-WINGED TEAL
37 Canvasback
5 Buffleheads
3 Ruddy Ducks
1 Am.Coot
8 Long-billed Dowitchers
2 Wilson's Snipe

Cyber Lake(accessed from S.R.115 south of Ocean City S.P.) 10:25am-10:35am
1 CINNAMON TEAL
1 Greater Yellowlegs
2 Hermit Thrushes

Ocean Shores Golf Course 10:40am-10:47am

1 Cooper's Hawk
2 Wilson's Snipe

Ocean Shores Jetty 11:05am-11:35am

18+ Western Grebes
32 Brown Pelicans
24 Black Turnstones
118 Surfbirds
2 ROCK SANDPIPERS
7 Bonaparte's Gulls
1 Black-legged Kittiwake
1 SHORT-EARED OWL

Ocean Shores STP/Ocean Shores Game Range 11:40am-12:30pm

1 EARED GREBE
1 CINNAMON TEAL
11 Black Scoters
1 dark-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK
2 adult Peregrine Falcons
12 Black-bellied Plovers
1 Least Sandpiper
15 Dunlin
1 Wilson's Snipe
8 Herring Gulls
1 Am.Pipit

Ocean Shores Game Range(accessed from Tonquin Ave.) 12:40pm-1:10pm

110+ "Cackling"Canada Geese(flying over)
9 Western Sandpipers
1000+ Dunlin

Bill's Spit 1:45pm-2pm


1 Merlin
325+ California Gulls
25+ Herring Gulls
1 BARN SWALLOW

S.R.105 at MP 44 west of Aberdeen 3:15pm

Ocosta Third Street 3:30pm

1 Cinnamon Teal
1 Lincoln's Sparrow

S.R.105 at MP 30 east of Westport 3:45pm

2 Great Egrets

Westport Marina(accessed from Wilson St.)

1 Red-necked Grebe
500+ Brown Pelicans
92 Marbled Godwits
27 Least Sandpipers
12 Long-billed Dowitchers
1 Wilson's Snipe
2 Western Meadowlarks

Tokeland 4:40pm-6pm

2 Red-necked Grebes
320+ "Cackling"Canada Geese(flying over)
1 adult WHITE-TAILED KITE(observed hunting over open fields east of Kindred
Ave.and northeast of the Tokeland Marina)
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 adult Peregrine Falcon
1 Virginia Rail(heard only)
55+ Black-bellied Plovers
16 Willets
1 Whimbrel
450+ Marbled Godwits
85+ Dunlin
12 Long-billed Dowitchers
1 Pileated Woodpecker
1 Lincoln's Sparrow


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net