Hello Tweets,

A rather short update on the Black-tailed Gull for those interested. The Black-tailed Gull was observed this afternoon between 1pm-2pm by 30+ birders at North Cove and was at times very active amongst a large flock of California and Heermann's Gulls,as well as observed resting and preening at times too. My mother and I arrived at North Cove shortly before 1pm and immediately located the Black-tailed Gull,after Nancy LaFromboise had indicated to us where the bird was. After about 10-15 minutes more birders arrived and viewed the bird most readily from the parking area above the sandy beaches,but several birders also observed the bird from the lower beach area in spotting scopes and at times the bird was concealed and somewhat hard to relocate. We left the bird at 2pm,as other birders were viewing the bird and we heard that the bird was not seen yesterday and only shortly prior to our visit this afternoon. It was good to see the bird again since it hasn't been posted onto Tweeters since the 21st of August,as far as we know. This afternoon the bird delighted observed from members on an East Lake Washington Audubon Society field trip,as well as birders from as far as eastern WA,so hopefully birder that continue to see the bird or not will post their sightings and results.

Our day began at Luhr Beach between 7am-8:45am along with 4 other birders in search of the posted probable Long-billed Murrelet,but the despite rather extensive searching during outgoing tide the bird could not be relocated. We only wanted to post our results and don't want to deter anyone still desiring to search for this bird in upcoming days,as we also attempted at this location on our way home between 3:30pm-5:15pm with again no luck at high tide. We noted during our evening visit much increased boating traffic due to fishing,etc.,which may move birds around top more protected areas. Good numbers of species were again noted as mentioned in our previous posting including Double-crested Cormorants,Great Blue Herons,Common Mergansers and several other various waterbird/waterfowl species along with scattered flocks of Western Sandpipers. A list of highlights noted today during both visits from Luhr Beach included the following:

12 Common Loons
2 Horned Grebes
1 Red-necked Grebe
3 Western Grebes
2 Pelagic Cormorants
2 Greater Scaup
3 Surf Scoters
2 White-winged Scoters
3 Ospreys
1 Northern Harrier(observed flying fairly high over the Nisqually Delta)
2+ Greater Yellowlegs
1 Spotted Sandpiper
5 Baird's Sandpipers(observed with a few Least Sandpipers only during our evening visit on a very small portion of a mud bar along the eastern shore of McAllister Creek)
17 Red-necked Phalaropes
22 Bonaparte's Gulls
38+ Pigeon Guillemots
15 Rhinoceros Auklets
5 Mourning Doves
5 Purple Martins
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet(best passerine migrant of the day)
1 Hutton's Vireo


Other areas visited during the day included a short visit to Bottle Beach and the Johns River Wildlife Area during incoming tide,which both produced a few noteworthy shorebird numbers for the day among other species,which include the following:

Green Heron
1 at the Johns River WA

Wood Duck
15 at the Johns River WA

Green-winged Teal
65+ at Bottle Beach

Northern Pintail
200+ at Bottle Beach

Blue-winged Teal
2 at the Johns River

Cinnamon Teal
16 at the Johns River WA

Northern Shoveler
8 at the Johns River WA

Turkey Vulture
7 at the Johns River WA
6 at Bottle Beach

Black-bellied Plover
21 at Bottle Beach

Lesser Yellowlegs
12 at the Johns River WA(with 27 Greater Yellowlegs)

Spotted Sandpiper
1 at the Johns River WA

Ruddy Turnstone
5 at Bottle Beach(with 4 Black Turnstones)

Western Sandpiper
430+ at Bottle Beach

Short-billed Dowitcher
9 at Bottle Beach

Long-billed Dowitcher
14 at the Johns River WA

Red-necked Phalarope
1 at Bottle Beach
1 at the Johns River WA

Yellow Warbler
1 at Bottle Beach



Good birding,

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