Hello Tweets,

This evening my mother and I searched for the probable Long-billed Murrelet at Luhr Beach between 3:30pm-7:30pm with NO luck. We were joined by Steve Nord,Keith Brady,Bob Morse and Jim Pruske,as all of us intently scanned the open water off Luhr Beach in several directions. The conditions were quite calm,but scanning furthest away turned the most difficult due to heat waves and "shimmering" conditions and at times on some of the alcids we weren't completely sure to identity. We had one possible candidate,as we scoped to the northwest of the boat launch,which strongly appeared black and white and was clearly not a Rhinoceros Auklet and was only slightly smaller in body structure than a nearby Rhino.Auklet. The bird in question showed fairly obvious white sides and when the bird turned it's head to the side,as it swam away from us the facial area appeared white with a dark crown,but that is all we saw and lighting conditions weren't the best and very limited. We encountered small numbers of Rhinoceros Auklets during the evening primarily as the high tide increased,of which we were mostly able to ID due to their fairly solid color. A few Pigeon Guillemots were also observed,but primarily early in the evening along with 2 Marbled Murrelets,which were seen when conditions were much greater. It seems at times birds moved around following the current lines and may change on a daily basis,so hopefully more observations will occur in upcoming days from Luhr Beach. Good numbers of Double-crested Cormorants were the most conspicuous waterbird species followed by Common Mergansers with scattered numbers of gulls. We will continue the search.

A few other sightings we encountered during our visit to Luhr Beach included the following:

1 Common Loon
3 Horned Grebes
3 Surf Scoters
2 White-winged Scoters
3 Osprey
3 Semipalmated Plovers(Nisqually Delta)
2 Whimbrel(Nisqually Delta and apparently at this location since the 30th of August)
430+Western Sandpipers
40+ Least Sandpipers(with 1 Baird's Sandpiper)


On a side note my mother and I briefly checked for shorebirds yesterday evening(August 30th)at Chamber's Lake(accessed from the East Gate of Ft.Lewis in Pierce Co.). Conditions at this location are not the premier prime for shorebirds with only limited muddy areas and several of the shorebirds foraging from lily pads with the lake. Noteworthy species noted included the following:

9 Semipalmated Plovers
5 Greater Yellowlegs
4 Lesser Yellowlegs
4 Spotted Sandpipers
30 Western Sandpipers
43 Least Sandpipers
1 Semipalmated Sandpiper
1 Red-breasted Sapsucker
1 Hairy Woodpecker
15 Western Bluebirds



Good birding,

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