Subject: Grays Harbor Sunday
Date: Dec 28 19:18:58 2003
From: Netta Smith - nettasmith at comcast.net


Hello, tweets.

Jay Withgott, Susan Masta, Netta Smith and I visited Grays Harbor today
(12/28) to see the Pink-footed Geese, which we did easily at Goose Heaven at
the end of K Street in Hoquiam. Thanks to the Sullivans from four more
satisfied customers. A dog chased them all up, so we got to see the
Pink-foots flying with the two Greater White-fronts in beautiful sunlight
and had great lighting on them for a lengthy study on the ground. There were
three subspecies of Canada Geese present, also (Dusky, Lesser, and Great
Basin).

Ahh, but to count or not to count, that is the question!

Other than the geese, our best bird of the day was a Gyrfalcon at Midway
Beach. Great looks at a brown immature that perched on the beach for a long
time, then leisurely flew up it. We struck out on Snowy Plovers, but the
falcon made up for it. Much of the area behind the beach was flooded, quite
a wetland but with nothing in it. The beach had large flocks of Sanderlings
and Dunlins.

At Bottle Beach there were more Sanderlings and Dunlins and Black-bellied
Plovers on the sand flats, and in the freshwater marshland on Ocosta Third
Street, there were 8 Greater Yellowlegs, 5 Black-bellies, 5 Long-billed
Dowitchers, 5 Killdeers, and a snipe. Didn't see any partridges or pear
trees. One Black-bellied Plover flew over us and called - I swear it -
exactly like an American Golden-Plover.

Our best shorebirding was at the Westport Marina, where we found a flock of
rock shorebirds on the rocks below the fishing pier (the place you walk to
across a bridge). There were at least 80 Surfbirds, 15 or so Black
Turnstones, and exactly 16 Rock Sandpipers. The lighting was perfect, it was
warm and still, and it doesn't get much better. We saw a lot of Surfbird
interactions, adjacent birds duking it out for space, but I never saw a
Surfbird aggressive to a Rock Sandpiper. The whole flock was making a
constant chatter, more noise than I usually hear from Surfbirds. I don't
know if they will stay there, but that's a primo spot for Rock Sandpiper
observing. No Pribilof birds. We were a bit surprised that the Black
Turnstones tended to stay separate from the sandpipers and Surfbirds and
also noted how orange the legs of some of the turnstones were, easily as
bright as the dullest juvenile Ruddies.

The other shorebird spot was Tokeland, where we watched the usual suspects.
There were about a dozen Long-billed Dowitchers there, too, along with all
the Marbled Godwits, Willets, Dunlins, and a Whimbrel. I estimated no more
than 500 Marbled Godwits, so I guess the much larger numbers that have been
reported by others weren't present. We saw no Long-billed Curlews either. A
Bald Eagle scared all the birds up, and it was a spectacular sight to see
the godwits wheeling around for several minutes. A Merlin had scared up the
rock shorebirds at Westport earlier, and again today I realized how often
these birds are scared up by their predators, making me a little less guilty
feeling when I scare them myself.

I was much impressed as always by how dead Grays Harbor is in the winter in
comparison with spring to fall. Our seabird list in the harbor included a
few Common Loons, quite a few Western Grebes and Surf Scoters, a few Pelagic
and one Double-crested Cormorant, a Red-necked Grebe and a few Western and
Mew Gulls. We looked long and hard for more, but on some scans with the
scope I saw scarcely a bird.

A big herd of elk at the Johns River added to the day's enjoyment. Someone
remarked "look at all the cows out there," and I said "cows don't all come
in the same color."

It rained and sleeted on us on the way out there and clouded up and rained a
bit on the way back, but the whole time of our birding was great weather. We
felt very lucky indeed.

Dennis Paulson