Today John Williams and I left Vancouver at 5:15 this morning on our way to Ocean Shores. Main target bird was Manx Shearwater. After not seeing shorebirds at the golf course we hit the jetty. When we first arrived we noted a feeding flock just north of the tip of the jetty of Common Murres with young, Rhinoceros Auklets, Pigeon Guillemots, Heermann's Gulls, Sooty Shearwaters, Caspian Terns, and Brown Pelicans along with their cousins all three Cormorants. Keith Brady was just getting to the tip of the jetty when we climbed the rocks and began heading out. We did stop for awhile checking out everything including Surfbirds, both Turnstones, Wandering Tattlers, and 1 or 2 Least Sandpipers feeding along the edges of the jetty. We had just seen a nice looking Tufted Puffin right before we got to the base of the jetty only to see 4 more sighting of this nice looking alcid.

As we headed out and talked to Keith who had just seen 2 Manx Shearwaters our mines began playing games with ourselves thinking this bird is almost in the bag. Another 2 hours and zero! Our best bird was one Pink-footed Shearwater heading north that Keith and I saw. The numbers of Sooty Shearwaters didn't impress me as I had seen lot more passing the jetty in past years. Another big miss was the absence of Jaegers.

Our next stop was Bottle Beach for an hour watching the tide move the shorebirds up close. Shorebirds here included: Many Black-bellied Plovers, 2 Semipalmated Plovers, 27 Whimbrel, lots of peeps mainly Westerns with some Least scattered here and there, and lots of Short-billed Dowitchers. No Red Knots as I would have thought there should have been. The blackberries are abundant on the way out which we were forced to sample.

Tokeland was next on our route and the tide was high. Lots of Whimbrels and Marbled Godwits all tucked in among the rocks across from the marina. No Willets or Long-billed Curlews were seen at the marina area or 7th Street corner.

Our last stop before heading home was the beach at Long Beach where 1,000's of Sooty Shearwaters were heading north approximately 1/4 mile off shore. They were not stopping to feed, but heading north in a hurry for who knows whatever. The sunlight was poor. If these Sooty Shearwaters are moving like that in the morning there would be a greater chance for finding a Manx. I don't know if Charlie Wright's Shearwaters were flying north or south and perhaps at the tip of Leadbetter Point they might be closer to the beach. In past years I have observed thousands of Sooties flying into Willapa Bay and I wasn't sure why. Is it food or roosting for the night or just checking out the bay?

By the way the jetty wasn't too bad going out on, but pretty tough coming back without a Manx it seemed twice as far knowing we had just missed two fly-bys.

Ken Knittle, Vancouver, WA
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