Hi all
This morning I spent a few hours at Richmond Beach park at the
northwest corner of King County.

There has been a relatively reliable gathering of Red-necked
Phalaropes in the waters off the park for at least 2 weeks now.
Today, I counted over 350 phalaropes off shore in one big group.
Earlier in the day, several smaller groupings [50-100] were around,
perhaps subsets of the 350 flock, perhaps different individuals.
On September 1, I had my highest count of Red-necked Phalaropes off
Richmond Beach, with 720 swimming around! Before that on August 28
there were 300+.
If you don't mind scope views and want to see a nice collection of
spinning phalaropes, this seems to be the most reliable flock I've
seen around this season. I don't know if there is any causal
relationship, but my highest counts have been closer to low tide.

Other sightings :
PARASITIC JAEGER - one flew by going north at about 10:00am.
SPOTTED SANDPIPER - the only other shorebird for the morning for me.
HEERMAN'S GULL - a few around [they seem fairly reliable at Richmond
Beach this time of year]
ORCAs - a family group [5-7?] swam by close to the Bainbridge coast
in the morning - even at that distance they were impressive.

Beyond that, things were pretty slow - mostly California Gulls, a few
grebes, only 3 Caspian Terns in 3+ hours [and no Common Terns,
Bonapartes or such].

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA
--