Hi Tweets,

Barb and I headed for the Long Beach Peninsula on Saturday, January 17,
combining birding with business. Our first stop was Nisqually NWR where we
spent an hour birding from Refuge Headquarters to the Twin Barns in light,
intermittent rain. We had nearly all the dabbling ducks (including 4
Eurasian Wigeons), 4 adult and 2 young Bald Eagles, a Red-tailed Hawk, 1
Rough-legged Hawk (a second possible was perched far, far away), and a
Merlin buzzed a flock of ducks without causing severe alarm. A lone male
Redwing was on his territory already.

We next birded along Highway 105 from Raymond to Tokeland, spotting several
more Red-tailed Hawks (including 1 beautiful dark-phase bird), and two more
Bald Eagles. The tide was far out on Willapa Bay, so the shorebirds were
scattered, too. Near the mouth of the North River we watched 90 Marbled
Godwits, 3 Greater Yellowlegs, 4 Black-bellied Plovers, and several dozen
smaller shorebirds feeding on the mudflats. Up the Cedar River from the
highway were 5 Tundra Swans, and two Barn Swallows hawked insects overhead.
In Tokeland a Sharp-shinned Hawk had a feeder staked out, and there was a
good variety of small numbers of shorebirds and waterfowl in and near the
marina, including a Willet, Long-billed Dowitchers, Dunlin, Horned Grebes,
Common Loons, and Red-breasted Mergansers. At three we left Tokeland for
Ocean Park; along US 101 we saw 4 Western Grebes in the Willapa River at
South Bend, a kingfisher on a wire over the Palix River, and 5 Trumpeter
Swans in Willapa Bay near Round Island.

On Sunday, January 18 the best birding was at our relatives' feeders near
Ocean Park: Anna's Hummingbirds, Downy Woodpecker, Varied Thrush, plus
chickadees, nuthatches, 6 Fox Sparrows, Song Sparrows, juncos, and finches.
Otherwise birding was slow: 9 Least Sandpipers at Oysterville and a good
assortment of dabbling ducks, but to the south near Fort Canby we didn't
turn up much. The huge muddy development at the Ilwaco marina attracted lots
of crows and starlings, but little else. We ended our brief trip with 64
species.

Paul Webster
Seattle
paul.webster at comcast.net