My wife and I drove out to Oysterville, WA this morning with hopes of
seeing the Mt. Plover. We parked at the beach access and began
walking up the beach for about a half hour when a car approached.
After dropping off Ruth and Patrick Sullivan (sorry I didn't get to
say hi) the car approached and Arden and Sherry Hagen of Vancouver
told us that we still had a great deal of walking ahead and suggested
we just drive up to the "No vehicles beyond this point area". They
kindly gave us a ride back to our car (THANKS) and we drove up the
beach with little difficulty. Back on foot for about a half hour we
encountered the "signal" left by Matt Bartels the day before, still no
sign of the Plover we kept walking...and walking. An hour later and
little to no human tracks I figured we had passed it and headed back
down the beach. I became very discouraged when I reached the marker
Matt B. had left because everyone said that the bird was moving north
and thus I certainly missed it. I kept going thinking I would camp
around the area and try again tomorrow. When all hope was lost I saw
some movement in the tire tracks and sure enough there it was. It was
located just about 5 minutes walking distance SOUTH of the spot Matt
Bartel's clearly marked. I got great looks and took many photos.
Some of which are at:

http://www.pipe2grep.com/~prb/mtpl_trip.html

Back at the car I discovered I was stuck in the sand. Some quick
pushing and I was able to get unstuck. For those that try for this
this bird in the future I highly suggest you save yourself some time
walking and drive up the beach as far as you can. I have an old Honda
Accord and I didn't encounter any problems. The only reason I got
stuck is I parked in the loose sand for fear the tide would come in
and take my car out to sea. If you do drive be careful and stay to
the hard packed sand...and if you have a 4x4 use it! If you don't
feel comfortable driving on the beach I think it is a shorter walk if
you take the "Blue" trail in the state park and walk south along the
beach. I didn't try this myself but I ran into some people who came
from that trail and said it was only about a mile from the parking
area. They also said it was "wet" whatever that means so there might
be flooded areas or something.

Afterwards we drove to Tokeland and saw the Marbled Godwits, Long
BIlled Dowitchers and Willets (pictures included in the link above).

Good Birding.
--
Aaron Martin
Seattle, WA