Hi Everyone--

Marcia Marvin and I spent a nice weekend birding around North Cove and
Tokeland. We had brief looks at the BLACK-TAILED GULL at 1pm 8/13, but
wanted to get better light, so we returned around 9am 8/14 to find several
scopes already trained on it. The fog reduced visibility drastically at
times, but rose long enough to provide sterling looks at an amazing bird.
Since nobody has commented about this bird's age, I thought it worth
mentioning that it is has adult mantle (between California and Western in
shade), tail (broad black band with white outer tail), iris (yellow), and
bill (black/red tip), but lacks windows in the primaries and has a smudgy
black head with a broken white eye-ring rather than the streaky white of
typical adult basic plumage, so it might be 2 going on 3 years old. After an
hour or so of viewing, we decided to look for godwits at Tokeland. The
flocks are quite skittish, but the BAR-TAILED GODWIT landed in the mudflats
near the marina, stayed for several minutes, then took off to the west with
50 or so other MARBLED GODWITS, 5 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, 10 WILLETS, and a
LONG-BILLED CURLEW. We were unable to relocate the Bar-tailed at Graveyard
Spit. We traveled from Tokeland back to Portland by way of Raymond and
highway 4. A GREEN HERON flying over the Willapa River bridge on highway 101
in Raymond was a nice surprise, and a male PURPLE MARTIN at the west viewing
area of JBHRftCWtD (Julia Butler Hansen) was a new Wahkiakum County bird for
me.

We ran into Jason and Andy Paulios at Santa Rita Lodge in Arizona a week
ago. Proof that Washington birders are well-traveled! We can only hope Jason
returns to Olympia in time to see the gull.

Mark Miller
Pleasanton, CA

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