Hello Tweets,

Today we enjoyed a rewarding day at the coast by birding from Bottle Beach to Tokeland with good numbers of shorebirds at most locations and great weather! We began the day with a short visit along a portion of the Brady Loop Rd. complex before continuing onto Bottle Beach. After checking Bottle Beach during incoming tide we drove to Westport and birded the general marina area then continued south to Tokeland. Our last major stop of the day was a good beach walk made at Midway Beach Rd.,as conditions continue to flood the majority of the area away from the outer beaches. We encountered a relatively good assortment of highlights,but as mentioned our best sightings of the day were shorebirds beginning at Bottle Beach.

We birded Bottle Beach between 10am-10:45am and made a walk west of the trails end,where vast numbers of Dunlin dotted the open mudflats along with smaller numbers of Black-bellied Plovers and Sanderlings . More extensive scoping of the mudflats to the west yielded a flock of 74 Marbled Godwits,which was our personal highest count of this species at this location! We presumed these were birds from Westport and were using this location for feeding,etc. and it was a nice sighting,as they foraged along the shoreline near a large Am.Wigeon flock. Our attention then turned to the large Dunlin flocks that swirled around from one end of the shoreline to the other as far east as we could look. We estimated a conservative number of approximately 15,000 birds in several intense scattered flocks. Essentially the Dunlin flocks were noted along the shoreline west to the Bay City bridge and east to the bend in the beach,as observed from the end of the trail. We thoroughly searched through the flocks,but were unable to locate any Western Sandpipers,which we somewhat expected with this amount of shorebirds.

Our next large Dunlin flock occurred during our afternoon visit to Midway Beach Rd.,where 2 large separate flocks flew in from the beaches to the north and gathered along he edges of the flooded area. Here, we estimated 7,000 birds,but unlike the Bottle Beach flocks were able to locate very small numbers of Western Sandpipers mixed in,as well as loose numbers of Sanderlings. It was nice to see good numbers of Dunlin staging in their wintering feeding areas and numbers could increase! Away from these 2 shorebird flocks we noted several highlights of which we list below followed by a summary list of highlights encountered at selected locations and times:

1 Clark's Grebe amongst a flock of 32 Western Grebes and 2 Red-necked Grebes at the eastern portion of the Westport Marina,as viewed from Float 21 near the Coast Guard station.

1 Osprey observed flying along S.R.8 at MP 12(west of Summit Lake)in Thurston Co.

1 Rough-legged Hawk along Brady Loop Rd.(immediately west of the intersection of Foster Rd.),which is most likely the same individual bird previously reported by Tim O'Brien

1 Snowy Plover(with 3 Semipalmated Plovers)at Midway Bach Rd.

78 Long-billed Curlews at Graveyard Spit(Tokeland)

2 lingering Bar-tailed Godwits amongst a flock of 900+ Marbled Godwits at the Tokeland Marina.

17 Rock Sandpipers(with 30 Surfbirds)at the Westport Marina observed along the Westport Marine Boardwalk at Float 20.

1 "pure" Yellow-shafted Flicker at Midway Beach Rd.




S.R. 8 at MP12(west of Summit Lake)Thurston Co. 8:30am

1 Osprey



S.R.8 at McCleary,Grays Harbor Co. 8:35am

1 Pileated Woodpecker



Hwy.12 at Elma,Grays Harbor Co. 8:50am

1 Peregrine Falcon
20 Dunlin
1 Western Scrub Jay



Brady Loop Rd. complex,GH 9am-9:25am

1 Cooper's Hawk
1 Rough-legged Hawk
2 Am.Kestrels
1 Peregrine Falcon
3 Black-bellied Plovers
2 Least Sandpipers
1 Western Scrub Jay
100+ Am.Pipits
1 Western Meadowlark



Bottle Beach,GH 10am-10;45am

2 Eurasian Wigeon
105 Black-bellied Plovers
8 Semipalmated Plovers
1 Greater Yellowlegs
72 Marbled Godwits
85+ Sanderlings
2 Least Sandpipers
15,000+ Dunlin
6 Bonaparte's Gulls
1 Orange-crowned Warbler



S.R.105 at the Bay City bridge,GH 10:50am

35 Greater Yellowlegs



Westport Marina,GH 11am-11:50am

9 Red-throated Loons
2 Red-necked Grebes
57 Western Grebes
1 Clark's Grebe
35+ Brown Pelicans
1 Northern Harrier
97 Marbled Godwits
25 Black Turnstones
33 Surfbirds
15 Least Sandpipers
17 Rock Sandpipers
2 Marbled Murrelets



Tokeland,Pacific Co. 12:30pm-1pm

1 Red-necked Grebe
14 Western Grebes
1 Peregrine Falcon
15 Black-bellied Plovers
18 Willets
1 Whimbrel
78 Long-billed Curlews
2 Bar-tailed Godwits
900+ Marbled Godwits
12 Sanderlings
6 Long-billed Dowitchers



Midway Beach Rd.,PA 1:15pm-3pm

5 "Black"Brant(presumably migrants observed flying north to south off the ocean beaches)
3 Northern Harriers
1 adult Sharp-shinned Hawk
2 Peregrine Falcons(including 1 very cooperative adult bird that allowed very close approach and photographs to be taken of it and was most likely too tired or full to fly)
3 Semipalmated Plovers
1 Snowy Plover
250+ Sanderlings
15 Western Sandpipers
68+ Least Sandpipers
7,000+ Dunlin
6 Bonaparte's Gulls
1 "Yellow-shafted"Northern Flicker(with 5 "Red-shafted"Northern Flickers)
7 Am.Pipits
3 Yellow-rumped Warblers
10 Western Meadowlarks


Ocosta Myrtle Street at Ocosta,GH 3:35pm

1 Hairy Woodpecker(last species of the day)




On our way home this afternoon we enjoyed several rainbows during brief rain showers along Hwy.12 in the Satsop-Elma area! All in all it was great day to end our weekend at the coast!




Good birding,

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