Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded Luhr Beach between the hours of 9am-12:30pm during outgoing tide and the weather was very good with calm conditions and just slight winds at times. Our main highlight was a juvenile Ruddy Turnstone observed foraging alone on portion of the mudflats at the Nisqually Delta,as viewed from the covered dock at Luhr Beach. The bird soon flew to the east over vast areas of mudflats and could still be around with more searching,especially when the tide moves in this evening. Our other highlight was 2 Heermann's Gulls(1 adult,1 juvenile)foraging loosely amongst a gull flock north of the boat launch(along a current line)and observed several times during our visit before 11am. We observed greater numbers of alcids today than in previous visits,primarily of Rhinoceros Auklets and continued large numbers of Double-crested Cormorants and Common Mergansers(and other waterfowl species)were also noted,especially off the Nisqually Delta. Other highlights observed during our visit included the following:

8 Common Loons
5 Horned Grebes
8 Red-necked Grebes
5 Western Grebes
1 Greater Scaup
1 Surf Scoter
4 White-winged Scoters
3 Osprey
2 Northern Harriers
1 Peregrine Falcon
1 Black-bellied Plover(presumed same individual than noted yesterday on the Nisqually Delta)
6 Semipalmated Plovers
4 Spotted Sandpipers
750+ Western Sandpipers(with small numbers of Least Sandpipers mixed in,which foraged along more drier muddy areas)
35+ dowitchers species(observed at a distance like yesterday on the Nisqually Delta)
105+ Red-necked Phalaropes(observed in various sized groups,mainly along the current lines off Luhr Beach northwest to northeast of the boat launch)
140+ Bonaparte's Gulls
2 Mew Gulls
2 Western Gulls
7 Common Terns
47+ Rhinoceros Auklets
6 Pigeon Guillemots
3 Marbled Murrelets
27 Band-tailed Pigeons
4 Belted Kingfishers
1 Black-headed Grosbeak(presumably a migrant at this location)



Good birding,

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


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20040902/20f678c4/attachment.htm