Tweeters,

Amy Cole, Alan Lincoln, & I had an amazing Monday (5/8) at Ocean Shores.
We arrived at the jetty at 8 AM, as fishing boats were going out to sea
and watched more than a half dozen disappear over the horizon during our
long and productive stay. The weekend rain was sputtering to a close
with one brief, dying squall and a couple more thin showers. Tall
breakers obscured the water surface close in with an incoming tide.

We were checking out gulls when Amy spotted a small group of dark
shearwaters wheeling near the horizon. We could see swarms of birds
clustered like insects around the fishing boats as they attained some
distance from shore. One light morph NORTHERN FULMAR was easy to
distinguish from the accompanying gulls as they ventured near the jetty.
I was riveted by the odd, wide tail fanned out behind a stocky body with
hardly any head or beak; then it disappeared behind the breakers. About
an hour before high tide, Amy pointed out a large flock of tiny birds
with unusual flight a bit further out. We watched the tiny FORK-TAILED
STORM-PETRELS for 20 to 30 minutes as we made out the odd set of the
wings, forked tails, and foot pattering. The beautiful swooping flight
was broken by individual short dives that pulled up quickly as the bird
maintained its position over the water with its wings at an improbable
angle. The birds touched the water with their beaks, but I saw none try
to land. I forgot to count, but would guesstimate we saw well over 50
birds, possibly more than 100.

After Damon Pt. & Bill?s Spit, we had a truly unexpected sighting of a
magnificently plumaged breeding pair of LAPLAND LONGSPUR across the
street from the Ocean Shores MacDonald?s. There was no mistaking this
couple as we scoped them for 10 minutes in the sunshine foraging in the
grasses at the base of a side street stop sign. We proceeded to do a bit
of foraging ourselves.

In the tall grass by the side of the road at the Hoquiam STP, we believe
we had VESPER SPARROW. There seemed to be several and some popped up for
brief views. We heard them sing and observed the large size, long-tailed
shape, color and gray auricular window open in the center on a few.
These were not at all like the female longspur we had just seen, and
were remarkably different from the Savannah Sparrows we?d observed all
morning and throughout the day.

Although the day was truly satisfying, I didn?t like having to miss all
the shorebirds visible in Bowerman Basin as we zoomed past on our way to
Ocean Shores?. Another day.

Patricia S. Lott
Seattle, WA
mail to: VariedThrush at comcast.net

Total tally:
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Greater Scaup
Surf Scoter
Ring-necked Pheasant
Pacific Loon
Common Loon
NORTHERN FULMAR--jetty
Shearwater species--jetty
FORK-TAILED STORM-PETREL--jetty
Pelagic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Cooper?s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs, heard
Wandering Tattler
Long-billed Curlew
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Wilson?s Snipe
Bonaparte?s Gull
Mew Gull, possible
Ring-billed Gull
California Gull
Western Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Caspian Tern
Pigeon Guillemot
Rhinoceros Auklet
Rock Pigeon
Anna?s Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Olive-sided Flycatcher, heard
American Crow
Purple Martin, probable
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee, heard
Red-breasted Nuthatch, heard
American Robin
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler, heard
Common Yellowthroat, heard
Spotted Towhee
VESPER SPARROW?Hoquiam STP
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
LAPLAND LONGSPUR?Ocean Shores
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Purple Finch, heard
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow