Tweets,
While Guy has elaborated on the Sharp-tailed and the lack of Curlewness, I
thought I should post on the black and white warbler as unfortunately I was
the only one to see it very briefly.
About 8:45 this morning while waiting for the tide to come in I decided to
check the alders for migrants. I first noticed a good movement west along
the shrubs of purple finches (20-25 birds) and both yellowthroats and yellow
warblers. As I got to the largest spruce tree near the trail entrance a bird
quickly caught my eye as it was hopping along the branch in a nuthatch
pattern (I noticed this with the naked eye). I quickly put my bins to the
bird only to see a lanky warbler with long beak and the shocker was the
black and white striped head and crown. After quickly confirming the ID I
called out "black and white warbler" to those present and tried to point out
the bird. After another 20 seconds or so the bird went about 10 feet higher
into the top of the dense tree crown and I made the bad mistake of turning
around to get others on it. In hindsight it would possibly have been better
to keep eyes focused on the bird and call out its movements. By the time I
looked back the bird was lost in the crown (or had flown out the back) and
despite attempts to relocate the bird was not seen again. I did later see a
black-throated gray in the same spruce tree making myself hopeful for a
second but alas it was the black-throated gray and not the black and white.
A nice runner-up prize as was the sharp-tailed, though I must say that
seeing the sharp-tailed out on the mudflats around black-bellied plovers,
baird's sandpipers and turnstone was very odd.
I also encountered 2 semipalmated sandpipers in my scoping the peep flocks
at high tide. One was a very dull gray basic plumage bird.

I will be supplying a write-up of the black and white to the WBRC for those
members who may read this and want to make sure a report is submitted. A fun
but very busy day (I had to be back in Yakima this eve at 6 for a baby
class), thus wasn't able to hit any place other than bottle beach.

Best birding.

Scott Downes
downess at chater.net
Yakima WA