Mike West and I birded from Bottle Beach to Westport and Tokeland on
Thursday, October 30. We had bright, sunny weather with strong winds from
the east all day and temperatures in the 50s. We knew the tides wouldn't be
ideal, but at least we had the day free and beautiful weather.

At Bottle Beach from about 11:00 until 12:00, and with the tide far out, we
scoped distant flocks of peeps, around 500 Dunlin, perhaps 100 Sanderlings,
a dozen or so dowitchers, and on one first-year bird we could see the plain
gray tertials of a Long-billed Dowitcher. The plovers we could see were
Black-bellied. There were also a dozen or so Ring-billed and two California
Gulls. In the brush and grass at the shoreline were a few Savannah Sparrows
and Dark-eyed Juncos, and the marsh held two Green-winged Teal and three
Mallards.

A mile or so to the west, at the Bay City bridge we found a Great Blue
Heron, 4 Great Egrets (which seem to be showing up more often in Grays
Harbor County), a half dozen Western Grebes, and a Red-breasted Merganser.
By the oyster packing company were several second-year Glaucous-winged x
Western hybrid gulls.

At the Westport marina we had four Brown Pelicans, a few Double-crested and
Pelagic Cormorants, eighteen Surf Scoters, two Western Grebes, ten Common
Loons, and a large juvenile Glaucous-winged Gull that begged shamelessly and
insistently for food from its parent.

At Midway Beach we missed a flock of a dozen birds overhead, pipits or
longspurs, we guessed, that dived into the beach grass and had vanished when
we went to investigate.

At Tokeland we had a flock of 10 Redwings and saw a Horned Grebe as we
arrived at the marina. We located the godwit flock just as a Merlin flew
overhead and made a half-hearted dive at the much larger godwits, and then
thought better of it. But that startled the flock; it took off, and when it
returned a couple minutes later the Hudsonian Godwit landed atop the piling
nearest to us. We saw the black underwings as it landed, and it's white
rump and black tail band with white edging showed, too. Then Marbled Godwits
pushed it off the piling and it plunged into the wall-to-wall godwit flock
on the platform closest to the road where the birds had some protection from
the east wind. We went around to the east of the flock and tried to put the
scope on Hudsonian Godwit from around 100 feet, but it had vanished among
the other birds. It was smaller than the Marbled Godwits, and had
relatively shorter legs, so it was completely hidden. Just then a Red-tailed
Hawk flew by and sent the flock of 500-odd godwits into the air. They flew
around to the east of us in the brilliant sunshine and swirled back and
forth in a dizzying display that took our breath away. We spotted the
Hudsonian Godwit, it's light gray and white sides clearly visible at points,
but it blended into the flock when the birds turned so that we saw mostly
their backs and wings. When the birds landed once more, the Hudsonian was
close to the front, jostling back at the larger birds that pushed it about,
and we could just see the beginning of the black color at the leading edge
of the folded wing.

Feeling pretty good at having added this beautiful little godwit to our
Washington lists we headed back for a last look at Bottle Beach, even though
we knew the tide would be pretty well in. We found no shorebirds there, but
we saw an immense flock of 500+ American Wigeon a couple hundred yards to
the east, and as they bobbed up and down we saw the heads of two Eurasian
Wigeons. A small group of a dozen Northern Pintail landed with them just as
a first-year Peregrine Falcon flew by, but the ducks ignored it as it
disappeared from view. On the way back we swung onto the Brady Loop Road,
but found only a single Great Blue Heron in the twilight. We agreed it had
been a worthwhile day, with 41 species seen, and no time spent at the
office:

Red-necked Grebe (at Westport marina)
Horned Grebe
Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Canada Goose
Eurasian Wigeon
American Wigeon
Green-winged Teal
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Surf Scoter
Red-breasted Merganser
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon
HUDSONIAN GODWIT
Marbled Godwit
Greater Yellowlegs
Long-billed Dowitcher
Sanderling
Dunlin
Black-bellied Plover
Ring-billed Gull
California Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Caspian Tern (2 near Bay City)
Common Loon
Rock Pidgeon
Belted Kingfisher
Steller's Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Dark-eyed Junco
Savannah Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark (perched on wire near Westport)