Hi Tweets,

Heather and I spent Sunday, walking and birding the coastal are of Port
Townsend, Jefferson County.

We started at Port Hudson (the SE corner of the city with the marina),
which has a public walkway that provides excellent viewing of the point.
Since it was early on a Sunday morning, it was pretty quiet and the birds
were all in close, including 2 ANCIENT MURRELETS within the entry to the
marina. That is the closest I've ever been. They were soon joined off the
point by 3 other individuals. On the other side of the bay (needed a
scope), were a group of 20 LONG-TAILED DUCKS.

We next went to Fort Worden State Park (NE corner of the peninsula) and
walked out to the Lighthouse on Point Wilson. This is another great spot
to see seabirds, up close and personal. At about 1030hr on the incoming
tide we had a YELLOW-BILLED LOON 25 feet off the point. The bird is in
transition from breeding to winter plumage. Oddly, it was the only Loon we
saw off the point. Other birds of interest:

Merlin - immature
12 Harlequin Ducks - mixed group of males and females,

We walked the entire beach on the bayside and only managed to add a few
house finches. From there we took the hiking trail up the bluff (starts in
the middle of the campground) and walked through the old gun emplacements.
Lots of good winter kinglet/chickadee flocks. There is some open habitat
near the emplacements with scots broom and brambles that looked good for
Palm Warbler, but no luck in finding any warbler today.

We ended the day by walking the public access trail that starts at the
marina (SW corner of town) and heads towards the pulp mill. There is an
old dock at the marina end that is a favorite roost for shorebirds and as
it turns out, a good place for River Otters to find food. There were nice
flocks of:

71 Black-bellied Plover
400+ Dunlin
80 Sanderling
109 Black Turnstones

Good Birding,


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