Today I visited Discovery Park and had some great sitings.
I saw a flock of 9 shorebirds that I am unfamiliar with. They were very close to me as I watched them from the rocks at the West Point lighthouse. They were robin sized, mostly solid gray, with white bellies. The beaks were short, not sure about the color. Their legs were definately yellow. Their tails were short and a bit black. They did not bob. Mostly they seemed not to be jumpy, but a walker flushed them up and they flew around a bit and then returned. The most striking thing was their upper wing patterns as they flew. They showed a lot of black with a white band on the rump of the tail, and arced white bands on the wings, running the length of the wings. I wish I had brought a camera! Can anybody give me suggestions?

I also saw 2 Semipalmated Plovers, 1 Killdeer, 17 Sanderlings and 6 Least Sandpipers. Their was still a small prescence of Rhinoceros Auklets.

I stumbled into a Barred Owl being mobbed by Robins, Steller's Jays, a Downy Woodpecker and an enraged Anna's Hummingbird. I have read about Barred Owls at Discovery Park but this is my very first siting of one.
I had an interesting day.

-Mark Vernon
Renton, WA


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