Hello Tweets,

This windy afternoon we checked a few waterfront locations along S.R.509(Marine View Drive)and within the Dash Point area of Pierce Co. We also made a brief visit to the Gog-le-hi-te Wetland along the Puyallup River,as well as an early evening visit along Ruston Way to Pt.Defiance. Our main highlight was 2 Heermann's Gulls observed amongst a large gull flock along S.R.509(immediately south of the Tyee Marina). Both birds rested amongst the gull flock on floating logbooms with one bird being an adult and the other bird a second year bird. Up to 450+ Mew Gulls and 100 California Gulls were noted from this same location,as well as a separate flock of 90+ Thayer's Gulls resting alone on floating logbooms. Further south along S.R.509 a pair of Eurasian Wigeon were encountered amongst a flock of 78 Am.Wigeon in a sheltered cove within the Hylebos Waterway immediately north of 11th Street. Up to 8 Barrow's Goldeneyes were also encountered at this location,as well as up to 7 Northern Pintail and 25 Green-winged Teal were also observed within this same waterfowl flock. These were our personal firsts' Barrow's Goldeneyes of the season for this location.

Our visits to the Browns Point Lighthouse Park,as well as the public fishing pier at Dash Point produced extremely small numbers of waterbirds with NO alcids encountered,despite windy conditions. Waterbird numbers remained scarce along the Ruston Way waterfront,as well as a short visit made at Pt.Defiance. Two separate flocks of Barrow's Goldeneyes were noted near Marine Park along the Ruston Way waterfront containing 55 birds. Additional notable sightings for the afternoon included the following:

Pacific Loon
2 off Pt.Defiance

Cooper's Hawk
1 at the Brown's Point Lighthouse Park

Red-tailed Hawk
4 soaring along the forested hillside along S.R.509 south of the Brown's Point
1 along Ruston Way

Bald Eagle
2 adults along S.R.509 near the Tyee Marina

Peregrine Falcon
1 near the Gog-le-hi-te Wetland

Spotted Sandpiper
2 along S.R.509 south of the Tyee Marina

Black Turnstone
2 along S.R.509 south of the Tyee Marina

Least Sandpiper
24 along S.R.509 south of the Tyee Marina

Bonaparte's Gull
2 along the Ruston Way waterfront

Mourning Dove
2 along S.R.509 south of 11th Street

Anna's Hummingbird
1 at Brown's Point


We have placed 4 photos of today's sightings onto our website including 2 photos of an adult Spotted Sandpiper and 2 photos of Barrow's Goldeneyes. These photos can be viewed at the following link: http://www.pbase.com/godwit/october05photos/




Good birding,

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