Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I relocated the RUFF along the eastern portion of Brady Loop Rd. at the same location south of Gillis Rd.,as previously reported by Betty Estes in her Tweeters posting yesterday. We arrived at the location at 7am and it wasn't until 8am that the bird was well observed by my mother as it foraged amongst 7 Greater Yellowlegs(including 2 birds in breeding plumage)on the east side of Brady Loop Rd. along the portion of the road,where the flooded areas along the road are closest. We continued to observe the bird until 9:30am along with Tim O'Brien of Elma,as the bird foraged on both sides of the road with the nearby Greater Yellowlegs and it this is most likely the same individual bird than reported as recently as early January along Moore Rd. near Satsop. The bird is an apparent male going by the slightly smaller size compared to the nearby Greater Yellowlegs,but what is most noticeable is the striking plumage in which the bird shows obvious dark "splotchy" areas on the upperbreast and sides contrasting to the well defined scaly back pattern. The leg color is a slightly deeper yellow than the Greater Yellowlegs and the black,slightly decurved bill is apparent as the bird was noted foraging along the shoreline of the flooded areas,as well as in the water. The bird was quite tolerable at times as it foraged close to the road,but would also be wary of our presence and fly further back way from the road in the flooded areas. The bird is a very striking bird and appears to be changing plumages due to the amount of dark "splotches" on the upperparts and sides,which the bird is in apparent molt. In flight the U-shaped white band on the rump is very distinctive and it is possible the bird may change it's plumage from day to day,depending on how long it remains. We checked the exact location three times during the day along with other birders,but the bird was only observed between 8am-9:30am and it seemed shorebird numbers in general declined after our initial visit with lesser numbers by our last visit between 2pm-3:30pm.

Throughout the day we checked a few other locations including along Wakefield Rd. south of Elma and Vance Creek Co. Park,a short visit to the Hoquiam STP and associating areas,and a stop made at the Schouwieler Rd. wetland west of Elma on our way home,despite the nearly constant rain showers with occasional breaks and were able to locate a few additional highlights for the day at selected locations. Our most productive stop was again made at the sparrow location along Wakefield Rd. south of Elma and Vance Creek Co. Park,where we located the Spizella sparrow sp. in a bramble patch along the immediate road. We located relatively good numbers of sparrows with minimal effort by walking along the edges and within the wet,weedy field as the weather held up at times including the following:

2 pair of Wood Ducks
1 pair of Osprey(with one adult observed collecting nesting material to add to a nestsite near Vance Creek Co. Park,previously reported by Tim O'Brien)
18 Wilson's Snipes(flying over)
1 Common Yellowthroat
10 Lincoln's Sparrows
2 SWAMP SPARROWS
3 adult White-throated Sparrows(2 white-striped and 1 tan striped form)
1 Purple Finch


Other notable highlights during the day included the following:

Am.Bittern
1 at the Schouweiler Rd. wetland

Tundra Swan
3 along Brady Loop Rd.

Greater White-fronted Goose
1 adult at the south end of K Street at Hoquiam

Eurasian Wigeon
1 pair at Grays Harbor(bordering the Hoquiam STP)

REDHEAD
1 male continuing at Grays Harbor(bordering the Hoquiam STP amongst good numbers of both scaup species)

Osprey
1 pair along Wakefield Rd.
3 along Wenzel Slough Rd.
1 pair at the Schouweiler Rd. wetland

Am.Kestrel
1 along Brady Loop Rd.
1 along Hwy.12 west of Elma

"Black"Merlin
1 along Brady Loop Rd.

Black-bellied Plover
28 along Brady Loop Rd.(including one bird in full breeding plumage)

Semipalmated Plover
13 along the shoreline of Grays Harbor(bordering the Hoquiam STP)

Greater Yellowlegs
34 along Brady Loop Rd.

Least Sandpiper
8 along the shoreline of Grays Harbor(bordering the Hoquiam STP with 3 Dunlin)

Dunlin
65+ along Brady Loop Rd.

Wilson's Snipe
35 along Wakefield Rd.
10 along Brady Loop Rd.
15 at the Schouweiler Rd. wetland

Western Gull
1 adult along Brady Loop Rd.

Northern Rough-winged Swallow
1 at the Schouweiler Rd. wetland(with 1 immature Barn Swallow)

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

Common Yellowthroat
1 at the Schouweiler Rd. wetland

Savannah Sparrow
12 along Brady Loop Rd.


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net






















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