Tweets,

Yesterday 4 of us birded John's River to Tokeland on a Black Hills Audubon
Society field trip. What was of most interest was what we didn't see as well as
what we did see.

We arrived at Bottle Beach at 11:30 and stayed until almost 2:00. When we
arrived there tide was way out and not much was on the beach. As the tide pushed
in we saw 3 BLACK BELLIED PLOVER mixed in with the gulls. They flew off
when everything flushed and weren't seen again. Later a dozen or so SEMIPALMATED
PLOVER flew in and that was it for
shorebirds at Bottle Beach! Off to Tokeland.

At Tokeland we found several hundred MARBLED GODWIT on the pier closed to
the road and there were 2 WILLET mixed in. Across the street at the abandoned
boat house were more WILLET. Tide was in so not much else there. Back toward
Westport at the turn off overlooking the island we found half a dozen
WHIMBREL and twice that many LONG-BILLED CURLEW mixed in with the gulls, BROWN
PELICAN and CASPIAN TERNS.

Our last stop was Midway Beach where we did find SNOWY PLOVER, HORNED LARK,
and AMERICAN PIPPIT. We also had a couple hundred SANDERLING along the beach
and streams of SOOTY SHEARWATERS flying just beyond the breakers.

All told we had 57 species with virtually no passerines. Interesting day
with some really nice birds but the common stuff just wasn't showing itself.



Phil Kelley
Lacey, WA
scrubjay323 at aol.com
360-459-1499

" We were few and they were many. Now we are many and they are few"
Confucius