Hello Tweets,

Today Ken Knittle,Jim Pruske and my mother and I led a field trip between the Hoquiam STP to Tokeland for the Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival,which surprisingly produced low numbers of shorebirds at all locations visited. Perhaps the shorebirds were in a different area,but our shorebird list ended up with 16 species for the day. Our biggest and most disappointing miss of the day was Red Knot,but we did have a few good birds that made up for much or all of our group to see. Passerines were also in short supply during the trip although the day was mainly designated for shorebirds. The field trip began sunny and clear with some areas of light fog then skies turned cloudy after 12pm,but overall we had good conditions with a total of 85 species for the day.

Probably our best highlight in itself away from bird species went to watching a pair of adult Bald Eagles pursue and then capture an immature Peregrine Falcon at Midway Beach Rd. This very brief incident occurred soon after we arrived at Midway Beach Rd.as our last stop of the day when 2 Bald Eagles flew over the dunes south of the end of the road chasing a Peregrine Falcon. The chase went on for only a few seconds until one of the Bald Eagles captured the Peregrine Falcon in flight,then flew off towards the dunes with the dangling prey while the other eagles landed at a fair distance on the open upper beach. It seemed surprising that a Bald Eagle would capture a Peregrine Falcon and this feat was the 1st time that any of us had experienced! We never saw the Bald Eagles consuming the Peregrine Falcon after it flew off east of the dunes.

While at Midway Beach Rd. our group did enjoy scoping views of a single adult male SNOWY PLOVER with minimal effort searching the beaches. The bird was on the west side of the main pond area at the end of the road amongst a scattered flock of Semipalmated Plovers. Other highlights from this location included 50 migrating Greater White-fronted Geese,4+ "Streaked Horned Larks,and 5 Am.Pipits.

Other noteworthy species encountered from other locations during the day included the following:

Red-necked Grebe
4 at Westport

Western Grebe
3 at Tokeland(amongst a very large feeding flock consisting of Common Loons,Red-breasted Mergansers,Double-crested Cormorants and various gulls in Willapa Bay)

BROWN PELICAN
3 a Westport

SNOW GOOSE
1 migrating north with large numbers of Cackling Geese over Westport

"Black"Brant
3 at Westport

Wood Duck
1 along Ocosta Third Street

Turkey Vulture
2 at Westport
6 at Tokeland

Osprey
1 nesting pair at the Hoquiam STP

Cooper's Hawk
1 adult at the Hoquiam STP

Merlin
2 at Westport

Willet
3 at Tokeland

Spotted Sandpiper
1 at Hoquiam along the Hoquiam River

Whimbrel
1 at Westport
40 at Tokeland

Marbled Godwit
11 at Tokeland

Ruddy Turnstone
2 at Tokeland

Surfbird
1 at Tokeland

Northern Rough-winged Swallow
1 along Ocosta Third Street


Good birding,

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