Hello Tweets,

Today we birded the Ocean Shores area with very slow birding conditions and a few main highlights for the day,but great weather! We ran into several birders during the day that may report similar sightings away from a great evening visit to the outer beaches that produced a nice variety of shorebirds! Our main highlights of the day consisted of an alternate plumaged Pacific Golden Plover at the Oyhut Wildlife Area(accessed behind the Ocean Shores STP)at 10am,then presumably the same individual observed after 11am at the Damon Point"pond". Additionally, we located a single juvenile Am.Golden Plover amongst a large Black-bellied Plover flock along the outer beaches between Marine View Drive and Driftwood Drive beach access. As mentioned birding conditions were very slow at Ocean Shores with alot of effort made walking the Oyhut WA,Damon Point to Catala Spit and finally along the outer beaches between Butter Clam Street to Driftwood Drive.

Our evening visit to the outer beaches was superb,as shorebirds came in from several direction on an incoming high tide with most of the birds being very nervous and "flighty",then after 30 minutes settling down onto the upper areas of the sandy beaches with 3 main flocks noted from 3 separate locations. We began our evening outer beach walk at 4pm at the Butter Clam Street beach access,then proceeded south with our first flocks of shorebirds occurring in flight from the north,being primarily Short-billed Dowitchers with just a few Black-bellied Plovers. We stopped along the beach just north of Marine View Drive and waited for more shorebirds to arrive with increasing numbers of Black-bellied Plovers,Western Sandpipers and Short-billed Dowitchers. By 5pm we scanned through 2 roosting flocks of shorebirds,despite small lingering crowds of beachcombers. We continued our way south along the beach towards Driftwood Drive,where we located our largest roosting flock of shorebirds that contained a cooperative Am.Golden Plover resting at the edge of a large Black-bellied Plover flock. The flock remained at this location for 25 minutes,as we thoroughly scoped through the entire flock then all of a sudden they lifted and flew in several directions with a portion of the flock continuing further south towards Driftwood Drive. We soon relocated the flock of shorebirds resting along the upper portion of the beach,as they mingled with a large gull flock. The lighting was poor at this time,then a few people on the beach flushed the entire flock of shorebirds and gulls with the shorebirds continuing north up the beach towards Marine View Drive and the gulls resettling. We remained at Driftwood Drive until 6:30pm and figured we thoroughly searched the flocks of shorebirds! It was a very nice way to end our slow day of birding! We have been encountering large flocks of roosting shorebirds during fall migration for the last few years,but finally figured out that the trick is not only being in the evening,but combining that with a high tide only! Maybe more birders will visit this area of Ocean Shores either in the early morning or during evening high tide and it is possible the shorebirds may come here also during the middle of the day,but our personal best results have been in the evening.


Shorebird species and numbers for the outer beaches this evening include the following:

800+ Black-bellied Plovers
1 Am.Golden Plover
4 Semipalmated Plovers
43 Whimbrel(observed flying over in 2 separate flocks)
1 Marbled Godwit(observed flying over)
1 Rudd Turnstone
2 Surfbirds
13 Red Knots
160+ Sanderling
270+ Western Sandpipers
10 Dunlin
670+ Short-billed Dowitchers



Other highlights noted today at Ocean Shores and other areas to and from destinations include the following:

Red-throated Loon
2 at Catala Spit(Damon Point)

Pacific Loon
1 at the Oyhut Wildlife Area

Common Loon
35 off Bill's Spit(North Bay)
3 at the Oyhut WA

Horned Grebe
3 off Bill's Spit(observed in North Bay and our personal firsts of the season)

Northern Pintail
5 at the Hoquiam STP
15 at the Oyhut WA

Gadwall
15 at the Hoquiam STP(including at least 7 juvenile birds)

Am.Wigeon
1 at the Ocean Shores STP(with 9 Northern Shovelers)

Greater Scaup
3 at the Hoquiam STP

Surf Scoter
850+ off Bill's Spit(observed in North Bay with 32+ White-winged Scoters)

Black Scoter
1 at the Oyhut WA

Hooded Merganser
3 at the Oyhut WA

Red-breasted Merganser
2 at the Oyhut WA

Turkey Vulture
2 at Damon Point

Osprey
1 at the Oyhut WA

Northern Harrier
2 at the Oyhut WA
2 at Damon Point

Black-bellied Plover
8 at Bill's Spit
800+ along the outer beaches at Ocean Shores

Semipalmated Plover
7 at Bill's Spit
5 at the Oyhut WA
4 along the outer beaches at Ocean Shores

Greater Yellowlegs
8 a the Oyhut WA

Whimbrel
2 at Damon Point(Catala Spit)
1 at the Oyhut WA
43 along the outer beaches at Ocean Shores

Marbled Godwit
1 at Damon Point
1 along the outer beaches at Ocean Shores

Pectoral Sandpiper
2 at the Oyhut WA

Long-billed Dowitcher
3 at the Hoquiam STP

Red-necked Phalarope
2 at the Hoquiam STP

Bonaparte's Gull
8 at the Oyhut WA
6 at Damon Point

Herring Gull
1 at Damon Point(Catala Spit)

Anna's Hummingbird
1 "flycatching" along Sportsman Ave.(north of the Ocean Shores STP)

Northern Rough-winged Swallow
2 at the Ocean Shores STP

Western Scrub Jay
2 along Hwy.12 at Elma
1 along S.R.109 at Hoquiam

"Streaked"Horned Lark
13 at Damon Point(Catala Spit)

Yellow Warbler
1 at Damon Point
2 at the Oyhut WA

White-crowned Sparrow
30 at Damon Point(Catala Spit)



Our mammal highlight of the day was a Gray Whale loafing in North Bay observed from Catala Spit at Damon Point




Good birding,

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