Last week, Garrett MacDonald, Fran Haywood, and I
chased rarities on the coast. West of Olympia, on
Sunday afternoon (8/15/04), we easily picked up 2
GREEN HERONs on a spot off 101 on the Eld Inlet. After
arriving at North Cove, we encountered a large
contingent of birders searching for the BT Gull.
Although there had been a brief sighting in the
morning, no one had seen it since. After scanning for
the gull, we visited Tokeland and saw the BAR-TAILED
GODWIT, Whimbrels, and hundreds of Marbled Godwits. In
the early evening at Westport, we found Wandering
Tattler and Black Turnstones on the rock groins. On
the Westport Jetty, we saw 14 Surfbirds. Two of the
Surfbirds were in alternate plumage.

On Monday, we spent a lot time at North Cove in a
futile attempt to see the BT Gull. Although there were
at least one observer present all day long, the bird
never showed up that day.

In the meantime, we revisited Tokeland and had the
BAR-TAILED GODWIT at close range. As noted by others,
It is still largely in alternate plumage. Some
excitement was generated, when a Peregrine Falcon
swooped into the Tokeland Marina and chased some
Willets around.

At Bottle Beach, we saw MacGillivray's Warbler and a
Wilson's Warbler on the thicket lined trail.
Short-billed Dowitchers, hundreds of Black-bellied
Plovers, Ruddy Turnstones, and a couple of PACIFIC
GOLDEN PLOVERS (one alternate plumaged).

After pondering whether to linger for another attempt
at the gull, we opted to stay with our orginal plan on
heading up the O.P., and try for Mt. Quail and the
Common Eider. As it turned out, this was the worse
choice possible. Not only did we turn up empty-handed
with the Mason County Mt. Quail, but the Port Angeles
Common Eider was nowhere to be seen either. Although
we saw a few interesting birds in Mason County
(Hutton's Vireo, Purple Finch, Band-tailed Pidgeon),
we realized that we had dipped on the two biggest
trip target birds (BT Gull and Common Eider).

As we drove southward down the peninsula, we checked
in with the birdbox and heard that the report that
the BT Gull had shown up on Tuesday morning. If only
we had stayed one more day in Westport...
All of us frantically made phone calls to extend our
trip one more day.

Unfortunately, Wednesday didn't pan out much better.
In the foggy dawn of 6:00 AM, we had a candidate gull
that was dark mantled, gray streaked head, black
primaries, the size of a Herrman's. However, it was
still too dark to ascertain the iris color and leg
color. The gull flew off without anyone catching the
tail pattern. Sigh.

We spent a good seven hours on the beach that day. As
we were preparing to leave, Wilson Cady and the
Sullivans arrived. Wilson was going to hang in there
all week if necessary to see the gull. I was glad read
the post that he finally succeeded.

For any others who might want to try for the BT Gull,
keep in mind that you might have to spend several days
staring out at the surf before you see the bird. There
is little that you can do other than stand around and
wait for it to come in on it's unpredictable visits.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com