On Friday my wife Janeanne Houston and I went to the WA coast from Seattle
determined to see more shorebirds than we had on our trip a couple of weeks
ago. Mission accomplished. At Damon Point in Ocean Shores we saw:
Brown Pelicans - hundreds
Common Murres - transitional plumages - 75?
Marbled Murrelet - several
PACIFIC LOON - 2 in transitional plumage
Pigeon Guillemot- several
Rhinoceros Auklet- several
Heerman's Gulls - many
Possibly one Sooty Shearwater
Caspian Tern
GBH pair with juvies
Goldfinch
Western Sandpiper flock
Pelagic Cormorant
Surf Scoter
Savannah Sparrow

As we headed towards Tokeland, we decided to check out Bottle Beach early (3
1/2 hours before high tide). Bingo! We stayed for over two hours, watching
huge numbers of shorebirds gradually creep in to us from about 200 yds. to
25 yds. Very cool. Highlights were:
RUDDY TURNSTONE - 6 (nice group close to us, and flying by, foraging in
moss)
DUNLIN - one, in breeding plumage
Black Turnstone - 1 fly by
Black Bellied Plover - 100-200 or more
Long Billed Dowitcher - somewhere between 2-400 birds
Long Billed Curlew - 2
Whimbrel - 6 or so
Marbled Godwit - 1
Western Sandpiper - 500+?
Baird's Sandpiper - 1-2
Semi-palmated Plover - 10 or more
Brown Pelicans - hundreds

But for me, the highlight of the trip was our late stopover at Midway Beach
outside Grayland. We were getting greedy, hoping to see more than the one
snowy plover we saw there a couple of weeks before. We did not see the
snowy, but we were not disappointed:
LAPLAND LONGSPUR - 3 - (lifer!!!)
Sanderling - Very large flock - hundreds along the water's edge at high tide
Common Yellowthroat
Savannah Sparrow
ps - there is now a BATHROOM at Midway :)

Headed to Tokeland as the day drew to a close:
Black Turnstone - 2
Whimbrel - 1
Godwits - 100s --- hunkering out on the "island"
Heerman's Gull - 100s

Mark Ahlness
mahlness at comcast.net
http://www.earthdaybags.org/mahlness.htm