Greetings all,

Getting tired of hearing about it? I hope not, because it's taken until now for me to get free to run down to Hoquiam to see these birds. Today around noonish they were hanging out in a rather odd flock at the foot of K Street. The group consisted of 7 CANADAS, 3 NORTHERN PINTAIL, 1 GREATER WHITE FRONTED GOOSE and our intreped pair of PINK-FOOTED GEESE. It was a thrill to see them, and Ruth, you can tally up one more viewer!

A very quick stop at the Hoquiam Sewer Pond and I was DELIGHTED to see large numbers of BUFFLEHEADS!! and quite a few CANVASBACK. I counted about 16 of the latter.

Another short stop on the way home at Brady Loop where I spotted hundreds on DUNLIN madly feeding in the muddy fields. It is an irrefutable law of physics that you cannot possibly count Dunlin when they are feeding, but there were also 31 BLACK BELLIED PLOVER in the area who were a little better at standing still until they had been properly counted! I tried very hard to turn them into Golden Plovers, but they just wouldn't co-operate.

On Highway 12 east of Brady Loop I stopped to admire 22 TUNDRA SWANS, 7 of whom were juveniles. I was able to put the scope on them to confirm the ID. And finally, I was delighted also to see 6 GREEN WING TEAL at Mud Bay. What can I say, I love ducks.

A quick, windy, rainy outing, but then birding is always a joy!

-Rolan


Rolan Nelson
Burley, WA
rnbuffle at yahoo.com

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