Hello Tweets,

Today we birded Ocean Shores by checking most of the familiar locations,but much of the day was extremely slow birding wise! The temperatures weren't near as hot as inland areas,but having northerly winds helped cool us down alot! Our main highlight of the few species we did see were 2 BLACK SWIFTS flying north during our visit to Bill's Spit,as we were able to get our spotting scope on them as they moved rapidly before disappearing. This is a species we have seldom encountered at Ocean Shores with most of the fall sightings occurring in August and September. In addition we began the day at the Ocean Shores Jetty between 10:30am-11:30am,where we located 6 WANDERING TATTLERS and 7 RUDDY TURNSTONES is loose association with 8 Black Turnstones and 48 SURFBIRDS. This was actually the main shorebird highlight of the day since so few other shorebirds were seen at Ocean Shores. Also of note away from birds near the tip of the Ocean Shores Jetty were good numbers of dragonflies with the only species identified being Common Green Darner.

Offshore waters at the Ocean Shores Jetty yielded many thousands of Sooty Shearwaters that mostly gathered and concentrated at the mouth of Grays Harbor in he range of 500-550 birds per minute. Many of the birds were noted in huge rafts at the mouth of Grays Harbor,but thousands of birds flew in from several directions and was our personal largest concentrations of this species this season. Due to heavy heat waves it was very difficult to locate any other species away from good numbers of Common Murres and Rhinoceros Auklets. A quick visit to the Ocean Shores STP during incoming tide produced 7 Western Sandpipers and a single Long-billed Dowitcher. Additional species noted at Ocean Shores included the following:

9 Northern Shoveler and 2 Hooded Mergansers at the Ocean Shores STP

1 male Rink-necked Duck lingering at the Cabana Pond

1 Osprey at the Ocean Shores Marina

2 Whimbrel at the base of Damon Point

22 Least Sandpipers at the Oyhut Wildlife Area with 8 additional birds noted at Damon Point

75 Short-billed Dowitchers at Bill's Spit

1 Olive-sided Flycatcher and 1 Pacific-slope"Western"Flycatcher near Bill's Spit

2 "Streaked"Horned Larks at Damon Point


Lastly,a single Western Scrub Jay was noted along Emerson Ave. in Hoquiam and our only Turkey Vulture of the day was noted along Hwy.12 just west of the Wynoochee River.



Good birding,

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