Hi all-

I birded a bit in the Westport area this morning and early afternoon.
The obvious highlight is in the subject of the email... The
previously reported BAR-TAILED GODWIT was at Float 21 in the
north/east section of the Westport Marina around 1:10 today. I had
tried earlier and missed the bird (around 10am or so) though there
was a smaller group of Marbled Godwits there (~150). When I came
back around 12:45, the birds were somewhat hidden by a Coast Guard
boat, so I went out on the float. Despite looking hard, I had no
success. Then the birds were spooked by an outgoing boat, and took
off. As they returned, I easily picked out the Bar-tailed as they
landed, by the washed out coloration and the wing pattern. Then it
promptly went to sleep...

I also checked Tokeland around noon. Like the Sullivans, I estimated
about 800 Marbled Godwits on the float and in two other smaller
flocks in the marina area. On the south side of the marina were
about 15 WILLET. It's funny... the Godwit are big enough that they
don't look like that many, but once I started counting I realized how
many were actually present. Try it!

Given the weather, I didn't try too hard for passerines, so not much
to report there. A MERLIN was also in Tokeland harassing Starlings.

I did check Bottle Beach for the Ruff. There were no birds in the
fresh/brackish? water by the footbridge, not at 9:45 nor at 2ish when
I returned. I can't say much for the shorebirds on the flats,
because my timing was perfectly bad. My first check had long
mudflats (though I could see birds were present, way out there.
There were 8 Common Loon and a few Horned Grebes in the channel, as
well as fly-over Pintail and Wigeon. On my return the flats were
totally flooded leaving only about 6 feet of beach. Too bad. I got
the Godwit though! LIfer!

Jesse
--
Jesse Ellis, Ph. D. candidate
Neurobiology and Behavior
jme29 at cornell.edu
111 Mudd Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, 14853

"Now, for some of you it doesn't matter. You were born rich, and
you're going to stay rich. But here's my advice to the rest of you:
take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs. And take
them down."

Herman Blume, in "Rushmore"