A Seattle Audubon field trip on Friday included leaders, Fran & Bunny Wood, myself and 5 other birders. WE were apprehensive about the weather but it turned out to be mostly sunshine all day. The few showers only happened when we in the cars. Our first stop was at the Top Foods on Black L. Blvd for restrooms and refreshments. A complete list follows a few highlights. We saw a flock of CEDAR WAXWINGS from the parking lot, the only ones of the day. Our next stop was John's River where we were greeted by a singing juvenile WESTERN MEADOWLARK. This was my first WEME for John's R. The tide was out, but there were no shorebirds visible on the mudflats, but we did hear GREATER YELLOWLEGS calling. COMMON LOON, WESTERN GREBE, DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT were also seen as well as a harbor seal. At Ocosta 3rd St., we saw/heard BEWICK'S and MARSH WRENS, NORTHERN HARRIER. We stopped at Bottle Beach during low tide. There were nine NORTHERN SHOVELERS in the pond at the bridge, numerous SAVA!
NNAH SPARROWS in the meadow and a FOX SPARROW in the brush. RING-BILLED GULLS and GREATER SCAUP were out in the distant water, but no shorebirds. Next stop was the viewing platform at the end of the Westport marina where we ate lunch while watching many BROWN PELICANS in the air along with HEERMANN'S GULLS, SURF SCOTERS. After lunch we walked the fishing pier walkway to the high point. On the rocks we saw feeding SURFBIRDS and BLACK TURNSTONES. In the water were WESTERN GREBES, many COMMON LOONS, and a couple of COMMON MURRES. At the end of float #21 were 50-60 MARBLED GODWITS. We scanned the flock for the Hudsonian Godwits that had been reported here. We did see two with pale breasts that were the best candidates for HUGOs, but they had there heads and bills tucked under their feathers and we never got a look at the whole bird. It would have been a life bird for some of us if we could get positive ID. We didn't have time to stop at Midway Beach on our way to Tokeland. On !
the beach side their were a number of BROWN PELICANS and CASPIAN TERNS
. At the end of the marina were 4-500 MARBLED GODWITS and we couldn't find any misfits among them. On the pilings to the south were WILLETS, one WHIMBREL and one BLACK TURNSTONE. At the restaurant area were three WESTERN SCRUB-JAYS with a STELLER'S JAY hanging out with them. This is the first time I have seen more than one WESJ at Tokeland. It was getting late and we had to hurry to get back to Bottle Beach before high tide at 3:50. On the way we saw GREAT EGRETs from the bridge at Bay City. We got to Bottle Beach about 3 p.m. and the tide was all the way in leaving only a few feet of beach and not shorebirds. We did have a flock of NORTHERN PINTAIL in the water. On the way back home we drove Brady Loop and Wenzel-Slough roads. Along Brady Loop we saw two AMERICAN KESTRELs and almost ran over a couple of female RING-NECKED PHEASANTs the darted out into the road ahead of us. Our last bird was six PIED-BILLED GREBE on the lake at Vance County park.

John's River - Western Grebe- European Starling- Double-crested Cormorant- Western Meadowlark- Red-winged Blackbird- Song Sparrow- Great Blue Heron- Common Raven- Red-tailed Hawk- Common Loon- Greater Yellowlegs

Ocosta 3rd St. - Bewick's Wren - Northern Harrier - Marsh Wren - American Crow - Canada Goose - Steller's Jay

Bottle Beach at low tide - Savannah Sparrow - Golden-crowned Sparrow - Northern Shoveler - Fox Sparrow - Ring-billed Gull - American Wigeon - Greater Scaup - Red-tailed Hawk - Northern Flicker

Westport Marina - Brown Pelican - Sanderling - Surf Scoter - Pelagic Cormorant - Brandt's Cormorant - Herring Gull - Savannah Sparrow - Lincoln Sparrow - Western Grebe - Great Blue Heron - Western Gull - Surfbird - Black Turnstone - Common Murre - Greater Scaup -- Float #21 Marbled Godwit - Red-necked Grebe

Tokeland - Red-tailed Hawk - Brown Pelican - Caspian Tern - Marbled Godwit - Willet - Black Turnstone - Whimbrel - Western Scrub-Jay - Steller's Jay - Killdeer

Bay City bridge - Great Egrets

Bottle Beach at high tide - Canada Goose - Northern Pintail - Savannah Sparrow - Green-winged Teal - and a small brown garter snake

Brady Loop - American Kestrel - Ring-necked Pheasant

Vance County Park lake - Pied-billed Grebes

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder at earthlink.net