Thanks so much to all you Tweeters out there who have been posting the
great reports about rarities. I drove right up to the COMMON EIDER,
after driving west along the Port Angeles waterfront past the ferry
dock and the blue viewing tower. I turned toward the water about 4
blocks farther west onto W 5 Street. The duck was right there. What
a large, interesting duck. It was perched fairly close to shore on a
log in the water, directly out from a small creek outlet. Wow. It
hopped into the water, and swam out around to the right, disappearing
from view behind the logging dock. But it came back eventually, and I
was able to view it some more.I was
there from 9:45am to 10:30am.
>From there I went back to Sequim/Dungeness and visited the Oyster
House and Three Crabs. Both areas were already at pretty high tide
(which surprised me because I arrived at about 11:30 and high tide was
supposed to be after 2pm). Both areas were extremely quiet,
bird-wise. Two Marbled Godwits were up near the dry sand at Three
Crabs. Nothing at the horse ponds either, except many Killdeer and
one Greater Yellowlegs. I wonder if people had such great looks at
shorebirds on Sat, because there might have been a bit of a fallout?
There was quite a wind storm w/ rain on Friday and those birds
probably had a hard time getting across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
But today it was perfect weather up there, no wind at all. So they
could pick up and head south. I suppose they are now in southern WA
or in Oregon.
Today's tides were pretty strange. After the high tide (supposedly at
2pm up there), the low tide following it later in the afternoon was
about the same height. Weird. So despite the fact that I waited
around quite awhile, the tide didn't recede, and the large shorebirds
were not seen.
Sheesh, this tide deal was a new one for me. Sometimes I think
chasing shorebirds is almost as frustrating as chasing gulls. ;-)
But come to think of it, getting a lifer Common Eider definitely made
up for the lack of shorebirds.
Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines, WA
mailto:linusq at att.net