Hello Tweets,

This afternoon my mother and I rechecked a few shorebird locations in the Kent-Auburn area of south King Co. than previous reports,beginning at the pond/wetland along 54th Ave. near the Boeing property, then a brief check made at the "old" Kent Ponds(GRNRA)along 64th Ave. S, then we drove south to the Thomas"pond" along 72nd Ave. SE(east of Hwy.167). We rechecked the "old" Kent Ponds on our way home,where we spent 2 hours at two locations with a final stop made at the wetland area along 54th Ave. Overall shorebird numbers were quite low compared to our visit to the are made on the 5th of August,but we did locate a few highlights for the afternoon. We arrived at the wetland area along 54th Ave. at 2:20pm,which hosted NO shorebirds with only 4 female Hooded Mergansers and a single flyover Osprey being the only highlights. Continuing south we stopped along 64th Ave. S and briefly checked the activity at the "old" Kent Ponds,which was also quite slow. We arrived at the Thomas"pond" at 2:45pm and located and counted the "peep" flock that contained 26 Western Sandpipers and 9 Least Sandpipers along with 8 agitated Killdeer that kept the "peep" alert and active.

By 4pm we arrived back at the "old" Kent Ponds,which produced several species of note with some effort scoping the shoreline edges and water areas. Our main highlight that occurred was a single Solitary Sandpiper that was briefly seen and heard calling several times from the "grassy knoll" accessed from 64th Ave. S. We encountered a few shorebird species during our stay,but overall the area remained quite slow. Other species of note observed at the "old" Kent Ponds included the following:

22 Pied-billed Grebes
4 Green Herons
4 Green-winged Teal
1 Blue-winged Teal
8 Cinnamon Teal
5 Northern Shovelers
1 Hooded Merganser
1 Northern Harrier
3 Red-tailed Hawks
3 Virginia Rails(1 seen,2 heard)
14 Am.Coots(including 4 recently fledged young)
1 Greater Yellowlegs
5 Spotted Sandpipers
6 Least Sandpipers
15 Long-billed Dowitchers
1 Wilson's Snipe
1 Willow Flycatcher
3 Northern Rough-winged Swallows
1 female Lazuli Bunting(observed just below the bench along the fenceline along the "grassy knoll" along 64th Ave. S.)

Our final stop was made along 54th Ave. at 6pm before driving home,where we rechecked the wetland area that hosted a single Green Heron foraging along the edge of pond and our last species of the day,being a single juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper amongst two Least Sandpipers,that were only briefly seen due to a flock of Rock Doves that flushed from a nearby area that in turn flushed the "peep",which continued south towards the Thomas"pond".

During the afternoon we noted several species of dragonflies with several that were not identified with the best species noted that included the following:

Black Saddlebags(1 at the Thomas "pond")


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net