Hello Tweets,

This afternoon my mother and I spent a few hours during incoming tide birding at Bottle Beach and at the Johns River WRA in Grays Harbor Co. The main highlight was a calling Red-shouldered Hawk encountered during our visit to the Johns River WRA at 1:50pm. The bird was only heard calling,as we stood scoping the freshwater wetland from near the green photo blind with the first series of calls heard loudest from the forested hillside bordering the wetland to the west. We heard the bird calling again 1 minute later giving the distinctive,fairly rapid and evenly spaced "keer-ah,keer-ah,keer-ah" calls distantly from the same general direction,then 2 minutes later the bird called again,but appeared to be possibly on the move. It was our only observation on the bird and could possibly be the same individual that we reported from this location on the 5th of September,as well as heard and seen by Matt Bartels the following day. It was a striking bird to hear,although at a distance and perhaps others will hear or be lucky to see this bird from the general area.

Overall conditions at the Johns River WRA were quite slow,although hearing the Red-shouldered Hawk was very nice,as well as watching a parading heard of 42 Roosevelt Elk,as they tramped and foraged through the freshwater wetland,then moved onto the more open,grassy areas to graze before returning deep into the forest. It was the first time we have personally watched Elk from this location at such a close distance,as well as watching them parade and prance around the short,grassy area with a few of them calling loudly. A list of additional highlights encountered from this location during our visit from 1:30pm-4:45pm include the following:

2 Pied-billed Grebes
1 Great Egret(observed along the immediate Johns River)
1 Blue-winged Teal
34 Northern Shovelers
2 Hooded Mergansers
1 Northern Harrier
2 Red-tailed Hawks
2 Am.Coots
8 Greater Yellowlegs
87 Least Sandpipers
5 Pectoral Sandpipers(including one exceptionally bright juvenile bird that could possibly at a distance be mistaken as a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper,but only by color)
12 Long-billed Dowitchers
7 Wilson's Snipes
23 Band-tailed Pigeons
2 Belted Kingfishers
124 Am.Pipits
105+ Cedar Waxwings
4 Savannah Sparrows

Earlier,between 1:30pm-3pm we checked conditions at Bottle Beach,which hosted 11 species of shorebirds including a juvenile Pacific Golden Plover and observed by several birders. Good numbers of waterfowl were most noteworthy away from shorebirds,primarily consisting of Northern Pintail and Am.Wigeon were encountered followed by large numbers of Surf Scoters(with small numbers of White-winged Scoters)in South Bay. Passerine movements were quite slow from this location,but a few species were encountered. A list of additional highlights noted include the following:

8 Common Loons
1 Pied-billed Grebe
6 Brown Pelicans
1 Northern Harrier
1 Peregrine Falcon
327 Black-bellied Plovers
8 Greater Yellowlegs
2 Marbled Godwits
1 Ruddy Turnstone
4 Black Turnstones
24 Sanderling
620+ Western sandpipers
68+ Least Sandpipers
15 Dunlin
1 Long-billed Dowitcher
67 Ring-billed Gulls
1 Chestnut-backed Chickadee
48 Cedar Waxwings
2 Yellow-rumped Warblers
2 Savannah Sparrows
24"Sooty"Fox Sparrows
1 Golden-crowned Sparrow
18 Purple Finches


Good birding,

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