Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded the Ocean Shores area, as we encountered several highlights during the day visiting most of the main locations including the Ocean Shores Jetty,the Oyhut Wildlife Area, Damon Point, and ending the day along the ocean beaches between Driftwood Drive and Marine View Drive. A morning visit to the Ocean Shores Jetty between 9am-11am was fairly slow compared to past visits,but a Manx Shearwater was the most noteworthy species and Common Murre and Rhinoceros Auklets numbers were much lower than last weekend,possibly due to dispersal. Sooty Shearwater, Brown Pelican, and Heermann's Gull numbers remained steady and very good from this location and along offshore along the ocean beaches between Driftwood Drive and Marine View Drive. Shorebird numbers were most concentrated along the ocean beaches as previously noted during our last of three visits between 3:45pm-5pm with large concentrations of Sanderlings and Black-bellied Plovers among other noted shorebird species in lesser numbers. A list of shorebirds species noted at this location during an evening visit included the following:

950+ Black-bellied Plovers
8 Pacific Golden Plovers
1 Semipalmated Plover
15 Ruddy Turnstones
14 Red Knots
3400+ Sanderlings
280+ Western Sandpipers
12 Dunlin
62 Short-billed Dowitchers


We were able to locate 9 Pacific Golden Plovers with all birds being in alternate plumage including 8 birds along the ocean beaches just south of the Driftwood Drive beach access and a single bird at the Oyhut Wildlife Area accessed from the Ocean Shores STP. Our most noteworthy shorebird species for the day was 2 juvenile Baird's Sandpipers observed at the western portion of the Oyhut Wildlife Area amongst a shorebird feeding flock consisting of one Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plovers and Western and Least Sandpipers. A single juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper was well observed amongst a flock of Western and Least Sandpipers near the Damon Point "pond",which was also noteworthy for the day. A list of other notable species for the day included the following at selected locations:

Red-throated Loon
1 off the Ocean Shores Jetty
3 at the Oyhut Wildlife Area

Pacific Loon
1 off the Ocean Shores Jetty

Green Heron
1 adult bird near Bill's Spit

Northern Pintail
20 at the Oyhut Wildlife Area

Greater Scaup
2 at the Hoquiam STP

Lesser Scaup
1 at the Hoquiam STP

Black Scoter
1 oversummering female at the Oyhut Wildlife Area

Surf Scoter
18 off the Ocean Shores Jetty
85 at the Oyhut Wildlife Area
15 off Bill's Spit

White-winged Scoter
12 off the Ocean Shores Jetty
1 at the Oyhut Wildlife Area

Bufflehead
1 female at the Hoquiam STP
1 female at Perkin's Pond(Ocean Shores)

Osprey
1 at the Oyhut Wildlife Area

Peregrine Falcon
1 adult female of the tundra race observed at the Oyhut Wildlife Area

Snowy Plover
3(2 adult males,1 adult female)at the Oyhut Wildlife Area

Greater Yellowlegs
1 at the Hoquiam STP
2 at the Oyhut Wildlife Area

Wandering Tattler
10 at the Ocean Shores Jetty

Black Turnstone
1 at the Ocean Shores Jetty(with 3 Ruddy Turnstones)

Surfbird
5 at the Ocean Shores Jetty

Long-billed Dowitcher
1 at the Ocean Shores STP

Red-necked Phalarope
3 at the Hoquiam STP
3 off the Ocean Shores Jetty
3 off the ocean beaches along Diftwood Drive beach access

Marbled Murrelet
3 off the Ocean Shores Jetty



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net