Hi Tweets,

I visited the Brady Loop area and took a quick drive down Wenzel Slough Rd. this morning. My main objective was to locate the Pacific Golden Plovers that have been seen along Brady Loop Rd. in the past few days. I first stopped along Foster Rd. and to my surprise most of the shorebirds were gone from the north end of the road. I did see a couple peeps fly up from the grass but they were too quick to get an ID. Just two days ago there were good amounts of shorebirds out in the grassy field but not today. I did have a little fun on Tuesday evening while I was stopped there. There were at least two Virginia Rails in the grassy ditch just off the road. I could hear them and see the grass moving when they moved so I tried to track them down and I got at least one good view of one of them. Back to this morning....I then drove down to the southern end of Foster Rd., where I saw 4 Canada Geese out in the field to the west and while looking at them I noticed a smaller raptor in a tree along the fence-line. The heat waves were driving me crazy today, but from the orange-colored breast and the barred tail I'm guessing it was a Cooper's Hawk. I then moved to the eastern portion of Brady Loop Rd. where I found a large group of Whimbrel out in the plowed field to the west of the road between Willis and Hiram-Hall roads. Mixed in with the Whimbrel were Black-bellied Plovers as reported before. I took my time and I was about to give up when I noticed a brownish-backed plover that stood out from the rest of the group. I watched the plover for some time through my scope (which I have back now) and finally got a good view of its undertail feathers that were mostly black compared to the all white of the Black-bellied Plovers. I could only find the one Pacific Golden Plover but the field has low points where I could only see the heads of several birds. I then drove down to the pond on the western end of Wenzel Slough Rd. The pond which could be called a puddle now is close to being dried up. There were only about 10 Least Sandpipers present here. Just to east of this pond, there were 10 Turkey Vultures. Five of them were roosting in a tree that I see them in quite often and 4 others were in a plowed field on the ground. Two of these four where sunning themselves. They had their wings fanned out almost completely. A group of 10 Band-tailed Pigeons flew over also at this location. American Goldfinch numbers are definitely on the increase in the Brady Loop/Wenzel Slough areas. I am seeing them in numerous locations along the roads now. Happy birding!

Tim O'Brien
Elma, WA
mailto: kertim7179 at centurytel.net