Hello Tweets,

Today we enjoyed rewarding and successful day birding at Ocean Shores along with great weather too! We checked most of the main locations at Ocean Shores,which were all productive and in the process we encountered several highlights. During the day we were able to locate 16 species of shorebirds with 14 species at Ocean Shores alone with our main highlight being 2 returning ROCK SANDPIPERS at the Ocean Shores Jetty. The Rock Sandpipers were observed amongst a flock of 38 Black Turnstones and 12 Surfbirds during the incoming tide and were a welcome fall sight! Other shorebird highlights from Ocean Shores consisted of a single AM.GOLDEN PLOVER at the Damon Point "pond" and 3 PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVERS along the outer beaches between the Driftwood Street and Marine View Drive beach access. Brown Pelican and Heermann's Gull numbers appear to be dwindling fast,but both species were noted during the day from several Ocean Shores locations.

Our day began with a short stop made at Mud Bay in Thurston Co.,where we encountered 10 Greater Yellowlegs and a single Spotted Sandpiper along Madrona Beach Rd. We drove straight to the Hoquiam STP,where 3 EARED GREBES were tallied on the main pond along with more common waterbird species. Our next stop was made at the Ocean Shores Jetty at 10:15am. A careful walk on the jetty itself proved good for "rockbirds" with the previous listed species for this location,but offshore waters were fairly quiet except for very large numbers of Western Grebes. Next, a quick visit to Bill Spit produced a flock of 60+ Marbled Godwits flying away to the south towards Westport,as well as 4 LONG-BILLED CURLEWS resting amongst a large flock of gulls at the tip of Bill's Spit. Also from Bill's Spit we scoped the offshore waters of North Bay and located 3 BLACK SCOTERS amongst a nice gathering of mostly Surf Scoters with a few White-winged Scoters mixed in.

After birding Bill's Spit we checked a Scot's Broom thick just north of the Ocean Shores Marina,where a single juvenile TURKEY VULTURE rested in an evergreen tree fanning it's wings out in the sun before flying off to the south. We then had a nice visit walking at Damon Point between 12:30pm-2:15pm by hiking just past the Damon Point"pond" then back to our vehicle. The restoration project of the S.S.Catala appeared to be in the completion stage since it is entirely surrounded by a chain-link fence and steel beams. At the Damon Point "pond" we encountered our first large group of Dunlin with a few Black-bellied Plovers,then walking east of the pond then north over the paved road to the north side of Damon Point we located another large flock of Dunlin and 40 Black-bellied Plovers. On our return walk back to the pond we located a single Am.Golden Plover amongst the same flock of Dunlin and 4 Black-bellied Plovers. Also of note from this location included 7 "Streaked"Horned Larks,8 Am.Pipits and 1 Lapland Longspur.

After Damon Point we birded the Oyhut Wildlife Area(accessed from behind the Ocean Shores STP),where we hiked north of the tall fluorescent navigation tower. Our main highlights from this location included a nice adult Northern Shrike foraging from several driftwood perches. Additionally,we located a nice flock of 30 Long-billed Dowitchers in the flooded area that borders vast Salicornia fields,as well as 15 Lapland Longspurs with 10 Am.Pipits. we ended the day at 4:15pm with a hike along the outer beaches between Driftwood Street and Marine View Drive beach access,where 3 Pacific Golden Plovers and 5 Semipalmated Plovers were located along the drier upper beach area. It was a nice way to end the day at Ocean Shores!

We have placed many photos from our day's highlights onto our website from Ocean Shores,which can be accessed at one of two galleries at the following links: http://www.pbase.com/godwit/recent_shorebirds/ or http://www.pbase.com/godwit/recent_photos/


Other highlights encountered during our day included the following:

Red-throated Loon
1 bird at the Damon Point "pond"
1 bird at the Oyhut Wildlife Area

Pacific Loon
4 birds off the Ocean Shores Jetty

Western Grebe
350+ off the Ocean Shores Jetty
200+ at North Bay

Cackling Goose
1 bird with 25 Canada Geese at Bill's Spit
25 birds flying south over the Oyhut WA

Ruddy Duck
2 birds at the Hoquiam STP

Northern Harrier
2 birds at the Oyhut WA
1 bird along the outer beaches at Marine View Drive beach access

Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 bird along S.R.109 just south of Ocean City State Park
2 birds at Bill's Spit(with one bird being dive bombed by an Anna's Hummingbird)

Cooper's Hawk
1 bird along Point Brown Ave.(south of the Ocean Shores Golf Course)

Ring-necked Pheasant
1 female at the Oyhut WA

Black-bellied Plover
45 birds a Damon Point
2 birds at the Oyhut WA

Western Sandpiper
15 birds at Bill's Spit
3 birds at Damon Point
1 bird at the Oyhut WA

Least Sandpiper
45 birds at Damon Point
8 birds at the Oyhut WA

Dunlin
400+ birds at Damon Point

Long-billed Dowitcher
3 birds at Damon Point
30 birds at the Oyhut WA

Herring Gull
40+ birds at Bill's Spit(observed amongst large numbers of California Gulls)
15 birds a Damon Point
9 birds at the Oyhut WA

Western Scrub Jay
1 bird along Hwy.12 just west of Brady

Savannah Sparrow
4 birds at Damon Point
6 birds at the Oyhut WA

Pine Siskin
45 birds at the Ocean Shores Interpretive Center


On a side note we observed a few lingering butterflies,as the weather remains fairly good with a single Painted Lady at Bill's Spit and a few California Tortoiseshells at Damon Point. We also observed only a couple of darner species(dragonflies)during our visit to Damon Point too. On our way home the remains of a Spotted Skunk laid along the shoulder along S.R.109 south of Gray Gables.



Good birding,

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