Tweets - I occasionally set out to see some bird or other who's whereabouts
have been posted to Tweeters. I'm seldom successful, but today was an
exception.

I managed to catch the 7:11 a.m. ferry out of Edmonds, arriving at Pt. No
Point while it was still fairly early in the morning.

At first it seemed like there weren't that many birds on the water, but
shortly after I arrived, lots came in. For starters, there were about 400
DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS, mostly fishing south of the lighthouse. Then I
noticed about 2 dozen BRANDT'S CORMORANT north of the lighthouse. There
were about 100 RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. Quite a few HORNED, WESTERN, and
RED-NECKED GREBE were around as well.

I finally started picking out some alcids among all of the BONAPARTE'S GULLS
offshore on the water. There were about 10 COMMON MURRE, a handful of
RHINOCEROUS AUKLETS, and at least 1 PIGEON GUILLEMOT. Then, TWITCH ONE - 5
ANCIENT MURRELETS landed amongst the Brandt's Cormorants about 100 yards NE
of the lighthouse.

There was also 1 PACIFIC LOON, and near my car, a LINCOLN'S SPARROW.

I then headed up to Port Hadlock to look for the jay. No sooner had I
arrived at 3rd and Maple when I saw the BLUE JAY fly AWAY. I quickly parked
the car, and was unable to find the bird again, so I walked, making my way
up to 2nd and Hayden (the direction the jay had flown off in), then back
towards my car. Halfway back, I heard the Blue Jay repeatedly calling from
near where I had started. It turned out to be calling from the tree *right*
next to my car. Luckily, it was still there when I got back to my vehicle,
and I got some good looks before it flew off to the northeast. TWITCH TWO.

A stop at nearby Oak Bay featured many ducks and 1 BRANT goose, looking
somewhat lonely.

I reached the causeway between Indian Island and Marrowstone Island while
there was still quite a bit of mud exposed, and picked up two GREATER
YELLOWLEGS and a WILSON'S SNIPE (and some KILLDEER). Mystery Bay featured 2
PIED-BILLED GREBE, to give me a 4 grebe day.

I birded FORT FLAGLER in the rain, and came across a quite unexpected (for
me anyway) sight. Down at the campground (the portion right down at the
beach, which consists of about 5 acres of mowed lawns with picnic tables and
restrooms), there were hundreds of shorebirds foraging on the grass.

Finding BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER and DUNLIN feeding on the grass was not too
surprising, but with them were at least a dozen SANDERLING and two or three
BLACK TURNSTONE. In the GRASS??? Poking around like starlings?

Another surprise there were 3 WESTERN MEADOWLARKS - a good bird for
Jefferson County.

I made my way various other places, but it was rainy and dark most of the
times I tried birding, and nothing else of note came my way. Still, 2-for-2
on the birds I was seeking made for a great day, and the shorebirds at the
campground were great.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.scn.org/fomp/birding.htm
== hummer at isomedia.com