Hello Tweets,

Today we enjoyed another nice birding day in Kitsap Co. by checking areas from the Colby/Manchester area to the Point No Point area. We began by checking Yukon Harbor from just north of the Southworth Ferry Terminal to the town of Manchester for any Bonaparte's Gulls,but we were unable to locate any during our mid morning visit and tide conditions appeared quite high with very little shoreline available. We ran into Bob Norton and 2 other birders he was with at Manchester and we spoke for awhile before continuing on our separate ways,then we drove straight to Hansville for our best birding of the day. The weather remained good all day with cloudy skies and partial afternoon sun and slightly windy conditions at the Point No Point Lighthouse.


Our main highlight of the day from several species was a female MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD at Hansville,which is presumably the same individual bird reported yesterday by Brad Waggoner. The bird was observed and photographed at 12pm "flycatching" from telephone wires in a large open field north of the Hansville Store and remained at this location until it finally flew towards the beach. A great bird during migration anywhere in western WA(away from the Cascades)! After watching the Mountain Bluebird we continued north to the Point No Point Lighthouse,where we spent a small portion of time gazing up at the skies as migrating birds flew overhead. Our main highlight at this location was an adult ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK observed migrating northward towards Whidbey Island. A few other raptor species moving north of Point No Point included a single Turkey Vulture and an adult Peregrine Falcon,but other migrating birds were present too. We encountered small groups of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Savannah Sparrows,as well as Violet-green Swallows also moving north over the open water towards Whidbey Island. 4 VAUX'S SWIFTS were observed amongst a small group of Violet-green Swallows,as they continued northward. A short walk along the north trail beyond the lighthouse produced good numbers of Savannah Sparrows,as well as a single Orange-crowned Warbler. Other noteworthy species from the Point No Point/Hansville vicinity included he following:

70+ "Black"Brant
2 Osprey
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 Ring-necked Pheasant(heard only)
4 Wilson's Snipes
40 Band-tailed Pigeons
2 Lincoln's Sparrows

We have placed several photos from today,as well as other recent sightings onto our website,which can be accessed from the following link: http://www.pbase.com/godwit/recent_photos/ . These photos include a Townsend's Solitaire photographed after taking a bath at Point No Point on the 13th of April.

As conditions remained good weather wise we continued onto the Foulweather Bluff Nature Preserve during outgoing tide. A nice forested walk to the open beaches and back produced the following notable species:

10 Northern Pintails
45 Black Scoters(with good numbers of both Surf and White-winged Scoters)
1 Black-bellied Plover
4 Bonaparte's Gulls
1 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Red-breasted Sapsucker
2 Northern Rough-winged Swallows


On our way home we stopped by Yukon Harbor again via the Port Orchard waterfront and located 100 Bonaparte's Gulls resting along the shoreline at the south end of Yukon Harbor,but NO Little Gull. Continuing on we located an additional 200 Bonaparte's Gulls foraging offshore from Blake Island observed along Olympiad Drive SE. Bonaparte's Gull numbers have dwindled over the past few days within Yukon Harbor,so perhaps the Little Gull migrated north.

Other highlights encountered during the day included the following:

"Black"Brant
150+ at Manchester
70+ at Hansville
50+ off Foulweather Bluff
60 at the south end of Yukon Harbor(Colby)

2 male Eurasian Wigeon along Beach Drive East(south of Rich Cove along the Port Orchard waterfront)

Harlequin Duck
9 at Manchester
2 along Beach Drive east(Port Orchard waterfront)

Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 at Manchester
1 at Point No Point

Cooper's Hawk
1 at Manchester

Black Turnstone
4 at the south end of Yukon Harbor(Colby)

Western Sandpiper
12(with 65 Sanderlings)at he south end of Yukon Harbor

Caspian Tern
2 at Yukon Harbor
10 along Beach Drive East(Port Orchard waterfront)

Anna's Hummingbird
1 adult male at Harper



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit513 at msn.com