Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I again observed the 2 Snowy Egrets at the River S Unit of the Ridgefield NWR in Clark Co. between 11:30am-2pm. The birds were observed from Rest Lake amongst a flock of Great Egrets,as well as from a favored egret roost near the entrance kiosk of the driving "loop". The bird eventually returned back to Rest Lake,where they foraged loosely amongst the Great Egrets and at times were quite elusive. The weather was quite unstable during our visit with occasional rain showers and wind,as well as a few sunbreaks and we noticed water levels raised slightly compared to our visit on the 21st of August. We noticed that certain numbers of birds dropped considerably compared to our last visit including Great Egrets,shorebirds,and gulls,which is probably due to the rising water levels from added rain.A few other highlights of note included the following:

7 Am.Bitterns
57 Great Egrets
162 Greater White-fronted Geese(in 3 separate flocks of birds flying north to south towards Sauvie Island or points beyond)
17 Turkey Vultures
2 Osprey
8 Northern Harriers
2 Am.Kestrels
1 Semipalmated Plover
32 Greater Yellowlegs
21 Lesser Yellowlegs
1 Solitary Sandpiper
34 Western Sandpipers
68+ Least Sandpipers
2 Baird's Sandpipers
2 Pectoral Sandpipers
9 Short-billed Dowitchers
168 Long-billed Dowitchers
17 Wilson's Snipes
1 Wilson's Phalarope
2 Red-necked Phalaropes
17 Vaux's Swifts
4 Northern Rough-winged Swallows
2 Bank Swallows
1 Lincoln's Sparrow(possibly the same individual than Paul Hicks reported previously onto Tweeters,as a seemingly early returning migrant)


On our way home we stopped and checked along Dike Rd. near Woodland in Cowlitz Co.,where 22 Greater White-fronted Geese were resting along a sand spit in the Columbia River with a group of Canada Geese.



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit at worldnet.att.net