Hi Tweeters,

On May 5, 2004 I stopped at Bottle Beach in Gray's Harbor Co. on the
falling tide at 2:30 pm and had good numbers and variety of shorebirds.

80 Western Sandpiper
200 Dunlin
100 Short-billed Dowitcher
70 Semipalmated Plover
1 Marbled Godwit
1 Ruddy Turnstone
2 Red Knot
4 Least Sandpipers

At 9:30am that same day in Elma on Brady Loop Road were

32 Whimbrel
2 pair of Black-bellied Plover in the brightest breeding plumage I have
ever seen - stunning!

The whimbrel were working the newly plowed fields on the western part of
Brady Loop road, I did not relocate them the following day.

On May 6, I birded Bowerman Basin at the incoming tide (1:00 - 2:30pm),
until the birds left shortly after high tide (1:40pm). The sun was perfect
and it was a 10' tide, so the birds were right up against the boardwalk -
always a thrill. I've put numbers down, but I quickly realized that
counting 1000s of moving birds is downright difficult and subject to lots
of error. Take the big numbers as a guestimate.

3000 Western Sandpiper
4000 Dunlin - some are in a breeding plumage that is a stunning bright
rust red on both back and cap
52 Red Knot
4 Short-billed Dowitcher
100 Semipalmated Plover

1 Merlin - immature, who made several unsuccessful passes at the
Dunlin.

New for me in the woods at the end of the boardwalk, was a singing Pacific
Slope Flycatcher and Warbling Vireo.

The high tides are still good, so add about 20 minutes onto Westport times
and make sure you're there on the incoming tide for best viewing.

Good Shorebirding,

Marcus Roening
Tacoma, WA
marcus.d.roening at gsk.com