Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I checked several of the same areas than yesterday in both Mason and Kitsap Cos.,again specifically searching for dragonflies with far cooler temperatures today than yesterday. We were specifically searching and checking a small lake near Wood Lake,which could possibly produce Black-tipped Darner,which is known from only 3 western WA counties(Mason,Kitsap,and Thurston Cos.)and from Stevens Co. in northeastern WA. We encountered relatively good numbers of darners yesterday,with far fewer darners today with NO Black-tipped Darners or any other unusual darner species detected on both days,although it is slightly early in the season for them to be encountered. We plan to visit this location in several weeks in search of the Black-tipped Darner,as conditions seems very favorable and overall productive for dragonflies. We encountered many of the same species of dragonflies than yesterday with the addition of a 2 additional species along with 2 species of butterfly that were encountered and identified. Away from dragonflies,we checked the mouth of Gorst Creek and Belfair S.P. with both locations continuing to host small numbers of shorebirds,including a juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper that was again observed at Gorst and is presumably the same individual than noted yesterday afternoon. This individual was not detected during our morning visit,but upon our returning afternoon visit the bird was observed foraging loosely with 4 Least Sandpipers at fairly close range and there are several vantage points at Gorst where shorebird viewing can be obtained with not one location being better than the other. Noteworthy highlights from both locations include the following:

mouth of Gorst Creek,Gorst,Kitsap Co.(10:30am-11am,4:15pm)

1 Bald Eagle
18 Killdeer
1 Greater Yellowlegs
1 Spotted Sandpiper
1 Semipalmated Sandpiper
21 Western Sandpipers
10 Least Sandpipers
1 Short-billed Dowitcher
7 California Gulls
17 Caspian Terns
2 Band-tailed Pigeons


Belfair S.P,Mason Co.(11:15am,3:45pm-4pm)

22 Killdeer
4 Semipalmated Plovers
1 Western Sandpiper
13 Least Sandpipers
5 Bonaparte's Gulls
2 Ring-billed Gulls
26 California Gulls
9 Caspian Terns
2 Mourning Doves
1 Northern Rough-winged Swallow


Our visit to the Wood Lake area produced a small variety of bird species of which notable observations to be listed below:

1 Great Blue Heron
5 Turkey Vultures
4 Bald Eagles
1 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Common Nighthawk
1 Black Swift(foraging in a thermal with 2 Bald Eagles and 1 Red-tailed Hawk)
2 Willow Flycatchers
5+ Northern Rough-winged Swallows
3 Purple Finches


Dragonfly species:

Boreal Bluet
Tule Bluet
Pacific Forktail
California Darner
Canada Darner
Common Green Darner
Western Pondhawk
Eight-spotted Skimmer
Four-spotted Skimmer
Common Whitetail
Blue Dasher



Butterfly species:

Great Spangled Fritillary
Lorquin's Admiral


Good birding,

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