Hello Tweets,

We have placed 14 new photos onto our website from sightings encountered from our coastal trip yesterday(in addition to the Golden Eagle and adult light-morph"Harlan's"Red-tailed Hawk). These photos include the cooperative Clark's Grebe,as well as a male Red-breasted Merganser at the Tokeland Marina. Additional photos include an apparent "beached out"Glaucous-winged Gull and 2 Snowy Plovers at Midway Beach Rd.,a Rock Sandpiper amongst a flock of Dunlin at Bottle Beach,3 Greater White-fronted Geese near Aberdeen,and a light-morph Northern Fulmar at the Westport Marina. The "bleached out"Glaucous-winged Gull could be mistaken for a 1st winter plumaged Glaucous Gull,but there are several key features that fully eliminate that species!

The Clark's Grebe at the Tokeland Marina was impressively cooperative and allowed very close approach,as other birders have indicated recently. The photo of 2 Snowy Plovers shows one of the birds having banded legs,which we didn't realize until after the photo was taken. The Rock Sandpiper was a nice treat at Bottle Beach since it was rather concealed at times amongst the Dunlin flock,then eventually the entire flock flushed by a Peregrine Falcon. We posted just one photo of the Rock Sandpiper at a short distance,which is quite noticeable due to the darker color compared to the paler Dunlin. In addition we took a photo of a portion of the Dunlin flock in rather tight formation with the Olympic Mountains in the distant background. We wanted to also mention that we encountered some of the largest Mussels we have ever seen in WA along the shoreline at Bottle Beach with some of the specimens being close to 10 inches long. It was a nice day being out at the coast and getting some photos of our sightings,as always!

Our recent photos can be accessed at the following link: http://www.pbase.com/godwit/recent_photos/



Sincerely,

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