Robert Reidl and I decided to take advantage of the great weather today
and headed to Ocean Shores early this morning in search of Rock
Sandpipers and anything else we might see.
Great birding started at our first stop at the McDonald's coming into
town on Point Brown Ave. We stopped for coffee and got three kinds of
warblers! They were working the trees and hedge row of the real estate
office next to the drive thru. There were several YELLOW RUMPS, a
ORANGE-CROWNED and a PALM WARBLER.
Next we stopped the woods by the Interpretive centre, we parked a
little up the road on Iola Street.
We had great looks at a PEREGRINE as well as seeing and hearing TOWHEE"S
, BLACK-CAPPED AND CHESTNUT- BACKED CHICKADEES, RUBY CROWNED KINGLETS,
FOX SPARROW, SONG SPARROW, WINTER WREN, RED BREASTED NUTHATCHES and
FLICKERS.
We also got good looks at several flocks of RED CROSS BILLS. While
looking at a small flock of cross bills we saw at least three that were
different. They overall redder looking with darker wings and darker
looking faces, they also had extremely visible large white wing bars. We
saw the conspicuous wing bars in flight and while perching we got good
looks and felt that these birds were WHITE-WINGED CROSS BILLS. We know
that this is an unusual siting but as this seems to be an eruptive year
and there has been previous records we felt that this sitting is not out
side the realm of possibility. The only other bird that we thought it
could have been, might be a pine grosbeak, but these were small birds no
where near the pine grosbeak size. I hope that some other birders
manage to find these birds and confirm this siting
To top off our stellar day we did indeed find a small group of ROCK
SANDPIPERS (5) forging on the jetty near a group of SURF BIRDS and BLACK
TURNSTONES. There was also a SANDERLING zipping up and down the beach.

Tina Klein-Lebbink
Bellevue
425-562-2469