Subject: [Tweeters] Monday birds: less (and more) than expected
Date: Aug 23 14:02:29 2005
From: Paul Hicks - phicks at accessgrace.org


Tweets,
Monday was my first crack at the fabled Stilt Sandpiper invasion. Figured
Johns River was a good choice--I could bird the coast while I was at it. But
I didn't want to arrive too early and find myself at Bottle Beach at high
tide, so I devised a delay tactic: bird locally and then hit Ocean
Shores "en route." I never made it to John's River or Bottle Beach or
Tokeland; I missed the invasion altogether. Up Vantine Rd (NE of Tenino) I
spent an hour tracking a "mixed flock" of some twenty species, with ten
others in close attendance. Most unexpected was a Hammond's Flycatcher,
singing(!) ever-so-briefly, in a riparian setting (adjacent to a densely
replanted clearcut 8-10 years old). (Thursday I had a Purple Martin
flyover.) Other unexpected and nice "surprises" at Ocean Shores etc:
> being surrounded, literally, by "swarms" of W Sandpipers at high tide
("inner" and "outer" shores, airborne, seeming everywhere)
> killer views of bright! L Sandpipers, and a single Semipalmated (STP)
> single Wh-f Goose flyover (STP)
> single knot, L-b Dowitcher, Dunlin on outer beach (Butterclam St)
> Osprey (was it hunting peeps or just joyriding through the crowd?
(behind STP))
> Osprey on nest at Hoquiam STP
> 95 species
A lot more fun than a trip to Bainbridge. I'll have to catch another
invasion some other day.

Good birding!

Paul Hicks
Tenino
phicks AT accessgrace.org