Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded the general Ocean Shores area in search of highlights that we encountered yesterday,but unfortunately were unable to relocate all of them that were listed in our posting yesterday. We spent much of the afternoon checking many locations than our visit yesterday at Ocean Shores,despite extremely stiff north-northeasterly winds during our entire visit at Ocean Shores. Our main highlights occurred at the Oyhut Wildlife Area during our visit between 11:45am-1pm(accessed behind the Ocean Shores STP)with a pure flock of 18 Common Redpolls flushed up from dune grass and other vegetation along the trail from the Ocean Shores STP to the Oyhut Wildlife Area giving their high,rising call notes well heard as they continued north towards the northern portion of Oyhut Wildlife Area. The birds were quite erratic in flight,but attempted to stay together in the stiff winds. It appeared the birds were possibly feeding on grass seeds or just hunkering down in dune grass before becoming flushed,which seems very unusual for this species. The only other "finch" flock that we observed in the general vicinity was 3 House Finches observed on the open,sandy area that occurs north of the tall fluorescent orange-black navigation tower. The Common Redpolls were immediately identified not only by their distinctive call notes heard in flight,but their overall fairly stocky body structure and a very short,stubby bill than nearby House Finches and a longer-tailed appearance and distinctive flight call notes compared to Pine Siskin. Most birds as briefly seen during the observation appeared to be females with only 2 males observed shortly overhead. Perhaps these birds were blown down by the recent northerly winds,but this account for this number of birds seems extremely rare since no other records have occurred to our personal knowledge in western WA away from the recent report of 60 Common Redpolls near Surrey,BC on the 29th of November,as reported onto the Vancouver,BC RBA. We searched the general Ocean Shores area,but were not able to relocate these birds or any other finch flocks perhaps due to the heavy winds. Our other highlight noted at the Oyhut Wildlife Area included a single juvenile dark-morph Gyrfalcon well observed in flight as well as on the ground and perched atop large driftwood snags at 12:15-12:30pm immediately north of the large sandy area north of the tall navigation tower,as we were continuing north of foot. The bird was harassed twice in flight by an adult Peregrine Falcon,which later continued to other intentions. The Gyrfalcon was very massive in overall body structure,but several key field marks stood out on this bird compared to the nearby adult Peregrine Falcon including the lack of any facial mask,showing a nearly all dark cheeks with very heavy,body streaking on the upper breast(including inner underwings as noted well in flight)with an overall dark brown body plumage with a noticeably long-tailed appearance. The Gyrfalcon was quite wary of our approach and flew short distances continuously,as we watched it looking north at the Oyhut Wildlife Area until the bird flew east towards Damon Point at 12:30pm.

During our visit to Ocean Shores Jetty between 1:10pm-1:35pm wind conditions seemed the most fierce,but we were able to locate a fairly large rock shorebird flock flying in and out of the wet rocks and crashing waves along the north side of the Ocean Shores Jetty. We were able to separate but not accurately count Surfbirds,Black Turnstones,and dominant race Rock Sandpipers We encountered increasing numbers of Surfbirds compared to our visit yesterday,but the other 2 rock shorebird species seemed equal in numbers. A generous scoping of offshore waters at the Ocean Shores Jetty proved unsuccessful in locating much of any seabird species away from various gulls,etc. Other areas of Ocean Shores were very slow most likely due to the near constant windy conditions,but a few notable species were encountered including the following:

Eared Grebe
4 at Lake Minard(observed from the Tonquin Ave. bridge north of Marine View Drive along with 2 Ruddy Ducks)

Greater White-fronted Goose
1 immature at the Ocean Shores STP

"Dusky"Canada Goose
15 at the Ocean Shores Golf Course

Eurasian Wigeon
1 male at Lake Minard(observed behind the large cement water tower along Marine View Drive, with 1 pair present at this location yesterday)

Black Scoter
17+ at the Oyhut Wildlife Area(observed in the inner bay behind the Ocean Shores STP)

Rough-legged Hawk
2 at the Oyhut Wildlife Area(accessed behind the Ocean Shores STP)

Merlin
1 along Point Brown Ave.(south of the Ocean Shores Golf Course)

Black-bellied Plover
11 at the Oyhut Wildlife Area

Sanderling
55+ at the Oyhut Wildlife Area
1 at the Ocean Shores Jetty

Least Sandpiper
4 at the Oyhut Wildlife Area
1 at Bill's Spit

Dunlin
230+ at the Oyhut Wildlife Area


Earlier in the day on route to Ocean Shores we briefly stopped by the "K" Street goose location at Hoquiam at 10:50am and immediately located the 2 Pink-footed Geese foraging with 2 Greater White-fronted Geese and a small flock of Canada Geese. The 2 Ross' Geese were observed along I-5 at the Nisqually NWR 9:30am,as we continued on our way to Hoquiam amongst a large flock of Canada Geese and a few additional observations on route to Hoquiam this morning included the following:

large swan flock noted along Hwy.12 east of Satsop,as noted in our posting yesterday with decreasing numbers noted today to and from destinations.

Am.Kestrel
1 along Hwy.12(just east of Schouweiler Rd. near Elma)
1 along Hwy.12 west of Montesano


On our way home we checked the Brady Loop Rd. complex at 4pm and encountered a few noteworthy species including the following:

10 Tundra Swans
1 Rough-legged Hawk
1 Am.Kestrel
8 Black-bellied Plovers
75+ Dunlin


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net











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