Hello, tweets.

Today Brian Bell, Martin Muller, and I led a field trip to Grays
Harbor/Willapa Bay for the graduating class of Master Birders. We planned to
spend most of the day around Ocean Shores but were rather disappointed at
the small numbers of birds there. Three Black Oystercatchers flew past the
jetty (Martin Muller), a small flock (I believe someone said 6) of Brown
Pelicans flew over the game range high in the air, and there was a feeding
flock of about 500 Sanderlings and 50 Semipalmated Plovers on the ocean
beach at the end of Marine View Drive. Farther north there were hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of razor clam diggers, the most people I have ever seen
on the beach there. One distant northbound flock of Canada and/or Greater
White-fronted Geese contained a Snow Goose.

Nothing much was happening at the jetty except a moderate northbound flight
of loons, mostly Red-throated but also a few Pacific; we saw perhaps 150
birds in an hour. Very few other birds: few northbound Surf Scoters, few
each of Double-crested and Pelagic cormorants, Common Murres, Pigeon
Guillemots, Marbled Murrelets, and Rhinoceros Auklets. One subadult
California Gull but surprisingly few gulls (resident ones must be going to
breeding colonies, lots of immatures around). The game range was entirely
lacking in shorebirds. We ran into Alan Roedell at the OS interpretive
center (where a female Am. Kestrel flew over, presumably a northbound
migrant). He had visited Tokeland the day before, and he said there were a
lot of shorebirds there, so we changed our plans and headed quickly for
Tokeland, at which we arrived in early afternoon.

At Graveyard Spit there were large numbers of shorebirds feeding, and after
watching them for quite a while, we moved over to the marina and watched
flock after flock of birds come in to roost as the tide rose.

Our shorebird totals for Tokeland, all in breeding plumage except where
otherwise indicated:

Black-bellied Plover - 30
Semipalmated Plover - 4
AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER - 1, probably female, mostly still in nonbreeding
plumage; watched for some time at Graveyard Spit, then approached and
flushed it and heard characteristic 'queedle' call
Pacific Golden-Plover- 1 male at Graveyard Spit with black-bellies, not at
same time and place as American but in full plumage
Willet - one flew over marina with flock of dowitchers, didn't see where it
went
Whimbrel -100
Marbled Godwit - 300; majority in nonbreeding plumage, interestingly
Black Turnstone - 2 at marina
Red Knot - 6 (two birds together seen numerous times, decided they all
couldn't have been the same birds)
Sanderling - 1; no trace of breeding plumage seen in any Sanderlings
Western Sandpiper - 50
Least Sandpiper - 3; not feeding with other birds but flew over us
Dunlin - 100; many still in partially molted plumage
Short-billed Dowitcher - 1000; far and away the most common species, coming
in constantly to the marina as we left there; much calling and singing

No shorebirds at all were seen in a brief visit to Midway Beach. Nothing
else was seen of special interest.

I used to see gray whales at the mouth of Grays Harbor just about any time I
went there at this time of year, but none today. Are people still seeing
them there in spring?

Dennis Paulson
--
Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115