Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded the southern portion of Grays Harbor from the Hoquiam STP to Tokeland in Pacific Co.,which overall was quite slow,but we managed to locate a just a few highlights for the day. Our first highlight of the day was a single Gray Jay observed flying over Hwy.8 at MP 16 in Thurston Co.(east of Summit Lake/Rock Candy Mtn. Rd.),which was fairly noteworthy. Our main highlights of the day were located at the Hoquiam STP including up to 3 Nashville Warblers that were observed during our calm morning visit to this location between 8:30am-10am. 2 birds were noted together along a vegetated "greenbelt" across from the Hoquiam Airport headquarters and Lana's Cafe,as they loosely foraged together at close range. The other single bird was well observed further to the south in the large brushy,vegetated area that hosted the Northern Waterthrush on the 26th of August,which is located north of Paulson Rd. and borders the Hoquiam STP to the north. The single Nashville Warbler was observed in a rather dense flock of other passerines containing 4 other warbler species,as it tended to forage lower in dense vegetation along with several Wilson's Warblers. This location seems to be a very good migrant area for passerines and with enough searching could produce additional unusual species. This was an exceptional observation of multiple Nashville Warbler in coastal WA and being in fall migration,so perhaps others will be reported away from the single bird noted by Jason Paulios at the Nisqually NWR on the 6th of August. Nevertheless a quality species for the outer coast of WA. Our other notable highlight noted at the Hoquiam STP was a single Lesser Yellowlegs that foraged on the partially exposed mudflat area that exists along the western edge of the sewage pond. A total list of other notable species at this location included:

8 Green-winged Teal
4 Northern Pintail
15 Northern Shovelers
4 Cinnamon Teal
4 Greater Scaup
1 Bufflehead
1 Northern Harrier
2 Semipalmated Plovers
30 Western Sandpipers
1 Baird's Sandpiper
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Willow Flycatcher
7 Warbling Vireos
13 Orange-crowned Warblers
19 Yellow Warblers
14 Black-throated Gray Warblers
34 Common Yellowthroats
17 Wilson's Warblers
4 "Sooty"Fox Sparrows
14 Purple Finches


As the beginning of the day began well with a good assortment of species before 10am,despite rather foggy conditions the remainder of the day was quite slow as mentioned. After birding the Hoquiam STP we continued west to Bottle Beach and nearby areas, then ending the day at Tokeland. Windy conditions and low cloudy conditions prevailed most of the day after leaving the Hoquiam STP(with the exception of Tokeland that remained calmer and had sunny conditions),which made probably hampered birding to some extent. Shorebird numbers were very scattered and quite few along these routes with the best viewing of shorebirds noted at the Tokeland Marina. A list oh highlights noted during the remainder of the day included the following at selected locations:

Common Loon
1 off Bottle Beach

Brown Pelican
22 off Bottle Beach
3 at Tokeland

Great Egret
5 observed along S.R.105 at MP 32 along the Elk River at Bay City(east of Westport)

Green-winged Teal
250+ at Bottle Beach

Peregrine Falcon
1 at Bottle Beach(observed harassing a Caspian Tern)
1 at Tokeland
1 along S.R.105 at MP 34(immediately west of Bottle Beach)

Virginia Rail
1 at Bottle Beach(heard only)

Black-bellied Plover
28 at Bottle Beach

Semipalmated Plover
34 at Bottle Beach

Greater Yellowlegs
1 at Tokeland

Willet
12 at Tokeland

Whimbrel
8 at Tokeland

Marbled Godwit
438 at Tokeland(counted twice)

Sanderling
24 at Bottle Beach

Surfbird
1 at Tokeland

Western Sandpiper
500+ at Bottle Beach
75+ at Tokeland

Least Sandpiper
22 at Bottle Beach

Short-billed Dowitcher
28 at Bottle Beach
2 at Tokeland

Heermann's Gull
375+ at Tokeland

Pileated Woodpecker(last species of the day)
2 observed along I-5 at MP 116 immediately north of the Nisqually River bridge in Pierce Co.

"Streaked"Horned Lark
2 at Midway Beach Rd.


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net





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