Hello Tweets,

This afternoon my mother and I birded portions of Grays Harbor Co. at a few familiar locations from Wenzel Slough Rd. to Ocean Shores and noted a few highlights that we recently reported in past weeks. We began with a quick stop along Moore Rd. near Satsop,where the lingering Greater Yellowlegs was again present at the flooded area north of West Moore Rd. in addition to a single Am.Kestrel that was observed. An extensive visit along Wenzel Slough Rd. at the same location where we have found Swamp Sparrows in past weeks produced up to 7 birds with many of the birds heard calling and all the birds observed after efforts of "pishing" were successful. The Swamp Sparrows were noted amongst many Song Sparrows and up to 3 Lincoln's Sparrows that were located. Our main purpose was to obatin additional photographs of this species,which we were able to obain upon our visit.It seems the Swamp Sparrows have all gathered at this location due to the favorable wintering habitat and have been easy to observe and hear with minimal effort and seem to favor the location,which also host many other sparrows. A single Pileated Woodpecker was also noted along Vance Creek. This location also hosted the lingering adult White-tailed Kite that has been noted since last fall. 3 Tundra Swans were noted flying towards Vance Creek Co. Park along Wenzel Slough Rd.

On our way to Ocean Shores we observed a light-morph Rough-legged Hawk that we have reported in past reports along S.R.109 at Paulson Rd. at Hoquiam. At Ocean Shores we located the PALM WARBLER that we reported on the 12th of January in the same Scotch Broom thicket immediately north of the Ocean Shores Marina,but the bird was very secretive and elusive. A thorough check of the Bill's Spit area produced a few noteworthy species including the following:

1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 adult Peregrine Falcon
500+ Dunlin(mixed with smaller numbers of Western Sandpipers)
1 Least Sandpiper
1 adult Thayer's Gull
1 adult male Anna's Hummingbird
1 Hutton's Vireo

Our final stop of the day was made at the base of Damon Point viewed from the Ocean Shores Marina parking lot along with Kathleen Wolgemuth of Ocean Shores,who joined us as we were scoping shorebirds on the exposed mudflats near shore. We were able to count up to 27 Semipalmated Plovers that actvely foraged with 4 Least Sandpipers at close range. Scattered focks of Dunlins with additional Western Sandpipers were also observed flying by to an unknown location.

Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net