Hello Tweets,

Today we birded the general Ocean Shores area with our best highlight of the day being a single immature Snowy Owl at the Oyhut Wildlife Area(accessed behind the Ocean Shores Sewage Treatment Plant). The bird was first located by us and several other birders at 10am from the Ocean Shores Sewage Treatment Plant,where it rested atop a large driftwood piece. We soon made a walk out onto the actual wildlife area north of the tall fluorescent orange navigation tower,where the bird remained calmly resting. The bird remained atop the driftwood allowing several photos to be taken of it until a beachcomber flushed the bird and it then flew to the northern edge of the wildlife area just west of the Tonquin Ave. access. A single Lapland Longspur was flushed from beach vegetation while watching the Snowy Owl,as well as a nearby Savannah Sparrow. This was our personal first Snowy Owl at Ocean Shores in many,many years dating back to the winter "invasion" when up to 30 birds were noted at Damon Point. It was not only a highlight for us,but several California and Oregon birders that were originally looking for the Temminck's Stint with of course NO luck today! The Snowy Owl was again noted during the late afternoon at the same general location at the Oyhut Wildlife Area,as well as a Gyrfalcon nearby,which could likely be the same individual we located at that same location on the 7th of November.

Our other highlight of the day was 6 Snow Buntings observed at the western end of the Damon Point"pond",which were quite active feeding in beach grass,as well as along the edges of sandy areas. The birds all stayed close to eachother and would just make short distance flights not going too far and at times allowed very close approach. The weather was good today with mostly sunny skies,but rather cold constant winds.

Away from the Snowy Owl we checked only a few other locations including a thorough walk of Damon Point and Catala Spit. It was nice talking to many other birders in the field even if the Temmincks Stint wasn't seen. Overall we noticed far lower numbers of shorebirds compared to our last visit at Ocean Shores including the complete lack of any Long-billed Dowitchers,so perhaps the Ruff flew off with those birds. We ran into 20 birders at various locations,as birders still seem to be flocking to Ocean Shores! Other key highlights from various Ocean Shores locations included the following:

2 Clark's Grebes remaining with a flock of 35 Western Grebes at Damon Point(in North Bay)

5+ Northern Harriers,1 Sharp-shinned Hawk, and 1 Cooper's Hawk at the Oyhut WA

1 Peregrine Falcon at Damon Point

2 male Ring-necked Pheasants along Marine View Drive near Tonquin Ave.

5 Black-bellied Plovers at the Oyhut WA(with small numbers of Sanderlings,Least Sandpipers and Dunlin)

15 Herring Gulls at Damon Point

18 "Streaked"Horned Larks,5 Am.Pipits and 1 Lapland Longspur at the Damon Point"pond"

1 male Varied Thrush near the east tip of Damon Point,which seemed quite unusual for the location such as one reported recently at the Ocean Shores Sewage Treatment Plant.


En route to Ocean Shores earlier in the day we began along S.R.8,where 3 Trumpeter Swans were noted at a small lake along the south side of the highway near McCleary. Further west 2 additional Trumpeter Swans were noted in corn stubble field along Hwy.12 just east of Keys Rd. near Satsop. A hard of 45+ Roosevelt Elk were noted in a large field north of Hwy.12 as we drove by near this same location. This could be the same herd that Tim O'Brien recently reported from this location on the 3rd of November and beyond,but it is neat to see these large animals so close to the highway.

The Hoquiam Sewage Pond aka the Hoquiam STP produced a good assortment of waterfowl including 20 Canvasbacks,8 Surf Scoters, 3 Common Goldeneyes.



Good birding,

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