Hello Tweets,

Today we enjoyed another day in Mason Co. by covering some of the same locations as yesterday,but also including a few additional locations such as the Kennedy Creek Estuary on our way home this afternoon. The weather was far cooler and cloudier than yesterday,but still good with calm conditions. Our main itinerary of today's trip was obtaining photographs of the ROCK SANDPIPER previously reported at Potlatch State Park,which was again well observed during our visit between 1pm-2pm. The bird was initially observed amongst a flock of 22 Dunlin along the immediate shoreline just beyond the restroom facilities at Potlatch S.P.,where we obtained our first set of photos of the bird. Within 15 minutes at this location the bird then lifted with the flock of Dunlin and flew south along the shoreline towards the salmon collection site,which is less than a half mile south of Potlatch S.P. Within a short drive to the large pull-off to this site we soon relocated the Rock Sandpiper amongst a flock of 78 Dunlin,where the all actively foraged at the outflow creek from the salmon collection site. The birds were feeding so much and keeping active that they didn't mind our very close approach. We just enjoyed great,close views of the Rock Sandpiper and obtained our personal best photos of this species for our collection! We left the bird along the shoreline at the salmon collection site at 2pm,where it remained feeding amongst the Dunlin flock along with several nearby gulls. We suspect the Rock Sandpiper may possibly overwinter at this basic location since feeding seems very good and as long as the Dunlin flocks remain.

Although the Rock Sandpiper was our target bird for the day it was not our main highlight,which consisted of a WILLET observed during incoming tide at the Kennedy Creek Estuary(accessed off of Hwy.101). We arrived at this location at 2:45pm with near perfect tide conditions and although lighting conditions weren't the best we did have a good assortment of shorebirds,as we scoped them from 1 of 2 vantage points. The Willet was somewhat further off on the exposed mudflats,where it loosely associated with vast numbers of Dunlins and a few Black-bellied Plovers and represented our 3rd personal record to date for this location and today's sighting was quite a surprise due to the date. While scoping the shorebirds we estimated 4000+ Dunlin and 320+ Black-bellied Plovers with up to 15 Western Sandpipers counted amongst the vast Dunlin flocks.

Our last stop of the day was made at Luhr Beach in Thurston Co.,where 2 SNOWY OWLS were visible at 3:30pm on the Nisqually Reach including a lone bird perched atop a large driftwood obstruction not too far out with an additional bird observed along the far eastern portion of the Nisqually Reach in Pierce Co.


Other noteworthy sightings encountered during the day included the following:

1 adult dark-morph Red-tailed Hawk at the Theler Wetlands at Belfair

1 TRUMPETER SWAN,300+ "Black"Brant,13 Canvasbacks,1 Common Murre,and 2 Marbled Murrelets at the "Great Bend" along S.R.106 just south of the town of Union.

3 Harlequin Ducks and 1 Herring Gull just south of Potlatch S.P. at Annas Bay

1 1st winter Thayer's Gull at the George Adams Fish Hatchery(accessed off of Hwy.101)

1 Mourning Dove and a single Western Scrub Jay along Hwy.16 just east of the Narrows Bridge in Pierce Co.,which both began our day.

1 Am. Kestrel at the Hwy.512/I-5 interchange(last species of the day)



Good birding,

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