Hello Tweets,

Yesterday(December 23rd)we participated on the Grays Harbor CBC,as we conducted surveys in our area in and around Bowerman Basin and a portion of the city of Hoquiam. The weather was good all day for us,as well as everyone else on the count! The preliminary count total for the Grays Harbor CBC came to 129 species with 96 species observed in our area alone and most everyone had some good highlight. Our two most significant highlights of the day were an immature RED-SHOULDERED HAWK and a single COMMON REDPOLL both located at Bowerman Basin nearest the Hoquiam STP. The Red-shouldered Hawk was first observed at 8:15am in the dense alder forest just south of the Grays Harbor NWR headquarters building(immediately north of the Hoquiam STP),where it then flew east towards Paulson Rd. and thus was never relocated the remainder of the day. The bird could very well still be in the area upon further searching and this represented our second Red-shouldered Hawk for this immediate location. The Common Redpoll was observed in the same location amongst one of several large flocks of Pine Siskins we noted during the day at Bowerman Basin. We tallied an astounding 1,266 Pine Siskins at Bowerman Basin and all these birds were observed from extensive areas of Red Alder during the early morning with no birds found after 10am! Later in the day during the CBC compilation we found out Common Redpolls were observed from several parties during the day including 10 birds in Westport,so there definitely seems to be a small invasion of Common Redpolls around western WA.

Our day was filled with fairly good numbers of waterfowl and shorebirds,as well bountiful supplies of "Sooty"Fox Sparrows too! We broke last year's personal count of Fox Sparrow with 139 birds this year,which was very good. Of the 9 species of shorebird we encountered during the day our best highlights were 11 SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS observed during the incoming tide at Moon Island. Other key highlights encountered within our area during the day included the following species:

2 male Eurasian Wigeon(Bowerman Basin)
60 Canvasback(all observed in Grays Harbor south of the Hoquiam STP)
30 Ruddy Ducks(Hoquiam STP)
1 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK(observed hunting over open fields at Hoquiam near the mouth of the Hoquiam River)
1 Merlin
1 Peregrine Falcon
14 Virginia Rails(Bowerman Basin)
2 Black-bellied Plovers
1 Greater Yellowlegs
1 Spotted Sandpiper
24 Sanderlings
50 Western Sandpipers
29 Least Sandpipers
5,059 Dunlin
23 Wilson's Snipe
1 Northern Shrike
1 Hutton's Vireo
5 Western Scrub Jays(Hoquiam)
2 Brown Creepers
26 Varied Thrushes
1 Orange-crowned Warbler
3 Yellow-rumped Warblers
2 Townsend's Warblers
2 Western Meadowlarks
8 Purple Finches
17 Red Crossbills

In addition to these highlights we also located a very pale Am.Robin while walking the side streets in Hoquiam. This individual was very noticeable and stood out from the "regular" Am.Robins by not only being much pale,but also being somewhat more slender and shy in behavior than the other Am.Robins. This bird appears very similar to the bird we noted at Point No Point last Monday morning,but this time were able to get some decent photos of the specimen. It is just a pale Am.Robin,but it is a bird you need to look at twice since it really does look different and thus could be considered for a specimen of some rare thrush(such as Eye-browed Thrush). Overall the bird shows a paler salmon-colored breast with pale grayish-brown back contrasting to distinctive facial markings. These markings reveal a whitish maler stripe with a streaked whitish throat and white eyebrow. The bill is bicolored,but often appears dark because the bird was very active digging at ground debris and grubs. It really is an interesting bird away from our normal Am.Robins.


We wish to also add a few other notable sightings made from other parties during the Grays Harbor CBC beginning with a HARRIS' SPARROW observed by Bill Shelmerdine's party at Westport,which represented the very first record for the Grays Harbor CBC! The same team also tallied 1 Short-eared Owl, 33 Rock Sandpipers and 1 Palm Warbler. A single WHITE-TAILED KITE was observed by Bob More and others at the Johns River WRA. Various parties at Ocean Shores encountered such highlights as multiple numbers of REDHEAD and Eared Grebe,1 Am.Bittern,1 Snow Goose,2 Long-tailed Ducks,1 LONG-BILLED CURLEW,1 WHIMBREL,1 Common Murre,11 "Streaked"Horned Larks,and 1 Am.Pipit. It was a great count again this year even if the final list was rather low than most expected!



Good birding and Seasons Greetings,

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