Hello Tweets,NW Inlanders and OBOLers,

The Red-necked Stint was again present this afternoon at the Three Crabs waterfront near Dungeness(in Washington State),as 50+ birders waited patiently for it's return after the bird was originally seen this morning after 8am by a few birders. I was detected by Wayne Weber at 12pm after flying from the east alone amongst a large concentration of Canada Geese,then it remained foraging and preening amongst the geese flock until exactly 12:33pm then flew eastward over the crowd of birders,then double backed and flew back over us and westward over the shoreline towards the mouth of the Dungeness River. The bird was seen on an incoming tide and continued to use the same exact location for feeding than in past days,but at times viewing was tricky since the bird seemed to continue it's behavior of staying close to the Canada Geese. It would move in and out of the geese,but also allow ample views of the bird when openings were available. It was a nice sighting,especially as the tide moved in and shoreline declined! The bird never return even after several of us remained at the location and enjoyed some nice conversation.

After 1:30pm 4 of us enjoyed a nice Fish and Chips meal at the Three Crabs Restaurant with a great waterfront table next to the window. The food was excellent! After the meal we rechecked the limited shoreline at Three Crabs,but only a very few "peeps" remained along with 2 Marbled Godwits and scattered Canada Geese and gull flocks that were all visible from the parking lot. The weather during our visit at Three Crabs was very nice and warm with just a slight wind at times,but increasing more after 12pm. Numbers of both Western and Least Sandpipers seemed about the same than yesterday along with Sanderlings with small scattered flocks throughout. Other noteworthy sightings encountered at Three Crabs included the following:

2 Pacific Loons
12 White-winged Scoters(with scattered numbers of Surf Scoters in Dungeness Bay)
250+ Common Mergansers
5-6 Bald Eagles
4 Northern Harriers
1 Am.Kestrel
1 adult Peregrine Falcon
200+ Black-belied Plovers
15+ Semipalmated Plovers
1 Greater Yellowlegs
1 Lesser Yellowlegs
1 Ruddy Turnstone
3 Baird's Sandpipers
28 Short-billed Dowitchers
18+ Long-billed Dowitchers
10+ Purple Martins

On our way home this evening we checked the offshore waters off Diamond Point along with 3 other birders with only a single fly-by Tufted Puffin being the most noteworthy with small numbers of Common Murres,Rhinoceros Auklets and Pigeons Guillemots and up to 3 Heermann's Gulls that were also present. A quick check of the "pond" at Diamond Point produced a single "Black"Brant,which kept in close association to a few Canada Geese and Gadwalls. This is a nice summer record for "Black"Brant in coastal WA eventhough a few occasionally oversummer at a few selected locations. A single Bonaparte's Gull was also observed flying past Diamond Point heading south into Discovery Bay. Our last species of the day was a single Common Tern observed flying over as we traveled east over the Hood Canal Bridge.Our day began en route to Sequim where we observed a single Marbled Godwit and 2 Whimbrel along S.R.3 at Gorst in Kitsap Co.,which are 2 good shorebird species for that county!


Good birding,

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