Hi Tweeters,

I led a somewhat similar Audubon trip to the coast as
the Tahoma Audubon group did. Our main highlight as
far as unexpected species was a Vesper Sparrow at
Johns River Wildlife area perched up right next to the
trail. The pond in the back was dry. We saw up to
150+ American Pipets here. Bottle Beach was as quiet
as I have ever seen it. Sometimes judging the tides
here is tough and that can make it a bust but the tide
was perfect but the shorebirds were just not around.

Guy McWethy our Tweeters attendee found us the Vesper
Sparrow and we repaid him in turn by continuing his
uninterupted streak of NO Snowy Plovers at Midway
Beach! Maybe next time. We did see an Osprey fly
along the coast line here and a few participants saw a
flock of about 50 Black Scoters fly over the sea.

At Graveyard Spit near Tokeland we saw a nice group of
mixed gulls with about 50 Caspian Terns, and about a
dozen Long-billed Curlews. One Mew Gull and one
Bonaparte's here. Several species were lifers for
birding visitors from Indiana we met here. There was
a hatchout of flying termites which created the
amusing spectacle of multiple species of gulls
flycatching from the beach. This was something I have
not witnessed before. The Marbled Godwit flock at
Tokeland seems to have grown by a few hundred birds
since last weekend but we could not pick out any
unusual Godwits.

As daylight was waning we revisited Brady Loop/Foster
Road and found one adult Sandhill Crane feeding in a
field that was being plowed around it! We also
refound the White-tailed Kite and got to watch it
hover hunt then fly off over the wooded hills to
roost. That was our cue to head home after a long and
interesting day of birding.

Kathy
Roosting in S King County

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