Today I swallowed my county pride and decided to check out what King county
had to offer in the way of shorebirds (as Thurston has been quite barren).
The ponds were quite easy to find off of Hwy 167 south of Kent. Take the
277th St exit and head east to the frontage road, follow this south for
about .5 miles and you'll find the "pond." Thanks to Marv Breece for
directions.

I arrived at the spot around 12:45 and stayed until 1:30. There was:
1 Green Heron (juv. in cattail pond south of shorebird pond)
1 G/B Heron flyby
2 Semipalmated Plover (juv)
Killdeer
1 Lesser Yellowlegs (juv)
about 20 Western Sandpiper
about 10 Least Sandpiper
2 Baird's Sandpiper (juv)
flock of Bushtit and some Brewer's Blackbirds by the entrance to the
highway.

On the way home I decided to see if there were any warblers moving at
Nisqually NWR. Walked the interior boardwalk loop and was able to find a
few birds:
1 Virginia Rail
1 Turkey Vulture
7 Com. Merganser (at Nisqually overlook)
in the flocks of B/C Chickadees I found one Willow Flycatcher, a couple
Brown Creepers, four Swainson's Thrush, one O/C Warbler and one female or
juv. MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER which I usually have trouble finding at
Nisqually.

Jason Paulios
Jpaulios at earthlink.net
Olympia, WA