Subject: Midway Beach Rd. to Elma birding
Date: Apr 28 19:26:00 2003
From: Ruth Sullivan - godwit at worldnet.att.net


Hello Tweets,

My mother and I checked a few locations today that we have visited in past days with our main goal in checking the shorebird activity at Bottle Beach during incoming tide between 9:30am-11:30am along with a visit to Ocosta Third Street thereafter. The shorebird activity at both locations was still very good,although numbers and diversity of species fluctuated to some extent during our visit. Most notable at Bottle Beach were up to 5 Red Knots and a single Ruddy Turnstone amongst the large numbers of Western Sandpipers,Short-billed Dowitchers,Dunlin,and lesser numbers of Semipalmated and Black-bellied Plovers. The only shorebird highlights along Ocosta Third Street at high tide were a single Lesser Yellowlegs and a lone Whimbrel amongst large numbers of Short-billed Dowitchers and other shorebird species. We traveled to Midway Beach Rd. arriving at 12:30pm,as we made an extensive walk south of the end of the road for approximately 1 mile along the sand dunes bordering the beach,then headed back to our vehicle along main beach shoreline. We were again unsuccessful in locating any Snowy Plovers,as we figure they are at nestsites. Our main highlight during our visit until 2:30pm was a single Horned Lark of either the "Arctic" or "Alpine" subspecies with nearby "Streaked" Horned Larks present for comparison. The bird was much paler overall showing NO yellow on the breast,throat and facial area,being replaced by white or cream tones, and the back was much more paler unlike the rusty tones apparent in the nearby "Streaked" Horned Larks and the individual lacked any streaking on the sides and flanks. We were unable to get a photograph of this individual,but did encounter up to 15 "Streaked"Horned Larks during our entire stay with most birds paired up. Another notable highlight for the location primarily in the particular habitat zone was a single "Sooty" Fox Sparrow and Lincoln's Sparrows observed together in beach grass vegetation bordering the immediate beach area,which we assumed the birds were actively migrating. On our way home we stopped along Foster Rd. at 3:30pm,where we encountered up to 5 Lesser Yellowlegs in the wet,grassy cow field along the along the east side at the north end of Foster Rd. The birds were located amongst up to 25 Greater Yellowlegs and approximately 40 Short-billed Dowitchers that were also foraging in this wet field. Continuing south along Foster Rd. and north of the intersection of Brady Loop Rd. we located a flock of 15 Black-bellied Plovers foraging on the west side of a large corn stubble field west of Foster Rd. We scoped the flock with both of our spotting scopes, as the birds seemed to forage closer to us at times and on at least one of the adult birds a brownish back was visible at several angles,but when the bird turned the white undertail coverts were obvious. We know that many adult Black-bellied Plovers can show brownish mantles,but other features separate any golden plover species by the noticeable white undertail coverts among other key features noted at close range,but possibly less distinct at a distance, such as in flight showing dark or black axillaries.

Other species we located during the day of note included:

Brown Pelican
7 off Bottle Beach

Wood Duck
1 pair along Ocosta Third Street

Cinnamon Teal
1 along Ocosta Third Street

Turkey Vulture
5 along Midway Beach Rd.
3 along Hwy.12 at Montesano
8 along Foster Rd.
5 along Wenzel Slough Rd.

Osprey
1 along Hwy.12 at Elma
1 along Hwy.12 at Montesano
1 at the Hwy.512/I-5 interchange,Pierce Co.

Am.Kestrel
1 male along Foster Rd.

Merlin
1 at Lakewood,Pierce Co.
1 at Midway Beach Rd.


Virginia Rail(heard only)
4 along Ocosta Third Street

Sora(heard only)
5 along Ocosta Third Street

Whimbrel
80+ along Hwy.12 near Elma

Band-tailed Pigeon
120+ along Wenzel Slough/Keys Rd. near Satsop

Western Scrub Jay
1 along Brady Loop Rd.

Am.Pipit
2 at Midway Beach Rd.
1 along Foster Rd.


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net