washingtonbirder wrote:

> It didn't take long to locate the Curlew Sandpiper feeding with
> Black-bellied Plovers, but hanging with the Western Sandpipers when
> they would fly. I got another birder on it who waded out to it and
> got very close after an hour or so.

I arrived this afternoon about three while Ken was still there and told
me he had seen it (I had had no luck this morning when I was there). I
waded out on the slippery mud and joined Jeff whom had gotten several
good looks at the Sandpiper, including seeing it flying clearly showing
the white rump. He tried to find it again for me, but I couldn't get on
it fast enough. He had to leave and I stuck around, never having seen
one before I was not at sure I could spot it on my own amongst the large
wheeling flocks of peeps. While scanning the flocks the "one of these
things is not like the other" method of birding paid off. Bigger than a
Western, smaller than a Black-Bellied Plover with that distinctive long
thin curved bill (Whoot!)
I manged to briefly get on it twice more and than it flew off down the
beach by it's self. I stuck around until about 4:30 or so and did not
re-locate it.

Tina Klein-Lebbink
Bellevue Wa