Hello all birders,

The Temminck's Stint was again present today at the southwest pond at the Ocean Shores Sewage Treatment Plant in coastal Grays Harbor Co.(in Washington State)by up to 100 birders. Despite being limited to standing outside the sewage treatment plant facility on loose rocks birders were allowed good views of the bird with birders coming from across Washington,Oregon and California! The main crowds of birders came after 10am,but throughout the day up until 2pm birders came and went. It was nice keeping track of the bird,as it foraged along the rocky shoreline of the pond and it remained the most active bird by feeding and running along the edges of the pond at times. It was surprising to see how active the bird could be and it almost never seemed to stop feeding! The bird would occasionally forage higher up from the water's edge up into the large loose rocks along the rocky slope of the pond,but for the most part it remained content by itself. On a few occasions the bird was observed chasing Least Sandpipers,but on one occasion was observed being chased by a much larger Dunlin. All in all the bird remained faithful to the southwest pond,where in could be viewed from either the south or west end of the fenceline. The weather remained quite good throughout the day until we left at 2pm when heavy rain moved in,when we last observed the bird. We have placed 14 new photos of the Temminck's Stint taken yesterday onto our website accessed at the following link: http://www.pbase.com/godwit/temmincks_stint/


It was really nice to see all the birders that came out to see the bird and most people really didn't mind standing outside the fence even if our views were limited at times. The other good bird that many birders enjoyed while watching the Temminck's Stint was the Ruff that was spotted by Steve Kornfeld of Bend,Oregon at 10:15am. The Ruff remained off and on along the edges of the southwest pond through the mid afternoon and tended to keep close to a large flock of 95 Long-billed Dowitchers. The gate will again be locked tomorrow,but we still expect good numbers of birders to come and see the Temminck's Stint! Other nice birds of noted while watching both good birds were a single Short-tailed Shearwater observed well off the main jetty looking southwest in heavy swells,a single Ruddy Turnstone amongst a flock of 25 Black Turnstones that flew over the pond heading towards the main jetty and a single Cooper's Hawk. Before leaving the town of Ocean Shores a single immature Greater White-fronted Goose was noted amongst a flock of 48 Canada/Cackling Geese at the Ocean Shores Golf Course.



Good birding,

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