Hi Tweeters,

I went to check out migration at the coast yesterday
for an all day trip.

First stop Mud Bay, heard Northern Rough-winged
Swallow right out of the car. Saw a flock of about 75
Western Sandpipers with a Black-bellied Plover thrown
in for color.

Rest stop in Elma, heard my first Washington Wilson's
Warbler singing away behind the 76 station.

Did the Brady Loop. I clocked a Savanah Sparrow at 15
mph. Found a flock of plovers, about 12 Black-bellied
Plovers, with two smaller plovers in the mix. One I
am fairly certain was a Pacific Golden Plover almost
in breeding plumage. The other had not molted yet and
I never could make up my mind on it's identity. I
heard and saw part of the huge flock of Greater
White-fronted Geese that Ryan reported. I spent a lot
of time looking at the plovers and had a date with
Bottle Beach. I never did nail down the real mystery
bird of the day which I saw shortly after looking at
the plovers. At the abandoned house with no windows
that the Barn Swallows fly in and out of there was a
possible Chipping Sparrow. I can't completely rule
out immature White-crowned Sparrow. I couldn't refind
it and needed to go, so who knows. It had a really
bright red cap on it.

Bottle Beach as it often is, was wonderful. I ran
into a East Lake Washington Audubon Shorebird Class
led by Tim Boyer and a Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival
trip led by Patrick and Ruth Sullivan. I ran into
lots of birders and a fair number of photographers.
There were multiple thousand shorebirds to pick
through. Western Sandpiper, Dunlin, a few Leasts,
Semi-palmated Plover, Black-bellied Plover, ~70 Red
Knot (counted by Patrick), many Short-billed
Dowitchers, Greater Yellowlegs, Ruddy Turnstones, one
Black Turnstone, and one Marbled Godwit. I might have
missed a few but I think that is the bulk of the
shorebird species there. I stopped at Ocosta 3rd
street and looped around to Euclid. Wood Ducks and
the Redhead were in the pond past the flooded street.
I wonder if the street will dry out this year?

At Tokeland the Godwits were out on the rock jetty. I
only saw two Willets, here there were Whimbrel, one of
which was calling a lot. A few Ruddy Turnstones and
about 3-400 smalller shorebirds, mostly Dunlin and
Western Sandpiper. At the two mud puddles by the
sanicans a handful of Cliff Swallows were gathering
mud for their nests. This is always fun to observe.

Graveyard spit had a huge flock of shorebirds sleeping
at high tide. They made a large swath of brown over
the beach. The flock was primarily Dowitchers with
some smaller shorebirds and about 100 Whimbrel and
approximately 200 Marbled Godwits. On the way out at
North Cove there was 11 Bonapartes Gulls in breeding
plumage and one Mew Gull. I heard a second Wilson's
Warbler singing at the cemetary accross the street.

I stopped in at Grayland both ways to look for the
Northern Mockingbird. The second stop talked a few
homeowners there and was told the best times to see
the bird is early in the day and late in the day.
They don't know where it goes during the day. No luck
for me. This is at the Beachcomber grocery right on
the main drag between Westport and Tokeland.

Then I went to Westport. On the way I drove through
Euclid/Ocosta again and heard a Sora calling. Nothing
much at Float 21 but two Sea Lions scared me pretty
well. They came up right to the edge of the dock,
poked their heads up and took a good look at me and
dropped down. I wasn't sure if they were going to
join me on the dock or not. Fortunately it was or not
and they dove under the dock. The main highlight for
me was on the walkway where I saw 20+ Brown Pelicans
that have returned. Several Brandt's Cormorants are
nesting on marker 7. About this time, 3:30 the wind
came up. Until that point it was a lovely day weather
wise.

Walked at John's River Wildlife Management Area. I
wished I had taken my scope but still was able to pick
out a Eurasian Wigeon on the pond. Quite a few
Greater White-fronted Goose but many stayed partially
hidden the grass and looked kind of like mushrooms
with their brown necks and heads. A fairly large
flock of small sandpipers here.

Then after dinner a rerun of Brady Loop Road from the
west end this time. At the abandoned house I tried to
find the mystery sparrow again but could not locate
it. A lot of area was ploughed around there between
the time I was there in the morning and evening. On
the east end I found one of the Eurasian Collared
Doves on a wire near a small more residential part of
Brady Loop. Nearby a Scrub Jay on a wire. Then I
decided to drive Foster Road area before heading home.
Good idea. First bird I saw was an American Bittern.
At first I thought it was a stick, then when I pulled
over and looked it was gone! I had the worst luck
ever looking at a Bittern last year. But this year
has been like night and day in that regard. I just
returned from California where I got point blank looks
at one at the main unit of the Sacramento National
Wildlife Refuge. The next morning in Cali, drove with
my Mom around the car tour again and she got to see
one too. The accidental birder gets to see a cool
bird again! The one she saw was displaying and
swaying its neck, but the lighting was not that great.
Anyway back to Brady Loop and Foster Road. I refound
the Bittern after getting to watch Wilson's Snipe I
heard winnowing. I had the bittern in the scope and
eventually got to watch it swallow some air and do the
oomp-a-loomp. Way cool. But it isn't over yet. A
little ways down the road I found a very wary but very
close to the road small flock of Greater White-fronted
Geese and low and behold there are the Barnacle Geese.
The geese were very nervous and sensed I was watching
them but they did not flush. At end of the day I saw
a successful Osprey on opening day of fishing with a
big trout looking thing on top of a telephone pole.

All of the locations except for the Beachcomber
Grocery in Grayland are covered well in the ABA
Birdfinding Guide to Washington by Hal Opperman.

A day of birding doesn't get much better than this.

I know many other birders made it out there for
migration and it was fun to run into you all. Now the
vacation is over and it is back to work tomorrow.

Happy birding.

Kathy
Roosting in S King County


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com