On Saturday, ELWAS had a field trip to the Grays Harbor area and down to
Tokeland. We had four who regularly go on the Marymoor Thursday walks,
Brian Bell, Sharon Aagaard, Stan Wood and myself. Three others also on the
trip were Sue Welsh, Margaret Snell and Tricia Kishel. We had showers or
rain off and on during the day, but overall a fairly good day of birding.
We headed directly for Westport after an interim rest stop at the Top Foods
on Black Lake Blvd. We bypassed Bottle Beach as the high tide was not
until about 12:30. The highlight of the trip was at Westport with two
WANDERING TATTLERS feeding on the rocks below the viewing deck at the end
of the road. Other birds are listed below. We came back to Bottle Beach
about an hour before high tide where we were rewarded with thousands of
birds, mostly Western Sandpipers. Scott Downes and Denny Granstrand were
also there scoping the shorebirds. From there we planned to go to the
access at Graveyard Spit in Tokeland to eat lunch on the beach. However,
the rain convinced us to stop at the North Cove overlook and eat our lunch
in the cars while watching the thousands of gulls thru wet windshields. We
next went to the Tokeland Marina area where there were a few hundred
MARBLED GODWITS with at least two BAR-TAILED GODWITS and one WHIMBREL. We
made a brief stop at Midway Beach where we did not see the suspected Ruff
that was reported as being seen early in the morning. We went on to the
Johns River access and walked the trail for a while. We drove Brady Loop
and Foster Road, and then Wenzel Slough road with our final stop at Vance
Creek County Park. After a long day we were ready for dinner which we
enjoyed at the Rusty Tractor Restaurant in Elma.
Here are some of the species we recorded by location:

Westport - the Float 20 area:
Wandering Tattler
Brown Pelican
Double-crested and Brandt's Cormorant
California Gull
Caspian Tern
Common Murre
Pigeon Guillemot
Rhinocerus Auklet
House Sparrow
Red-tailed Hawk - 1, 4 more seen at various locations

Westport - Float 21:
Surf Scoter
Heermann's Gull

Bottle Beach:
Western Sandpiper - thousands
Peregrine Falcon - an inept juvenile scared up all the shorebirds without
making a serious attempt to go after one of birds
Least Sandpiper - a few feeding in the mud east of the bridge going to the
beach
Green-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Black-bellied Plover -100+
Killdeer
Ruddy and Black Turnstone
Red Knot
Dunlin
Long-billed Dowitcher
Ring-billed Gull
Red-necked Phalarope
Belted Kingfisher
Barn Swallow
Red-winged Blackbird
Virginia Rail - two heard in wetlands on Third Street Ocosta
TurkeyVulture - 1

Tokeland:
Marbled Godwit - a few hundred
Bar-tailed Godwit - at least 2
Whimbrel - 1
Willet - 12+
Great Blue Heron - 15
Western Gull
Purple Martin - at least 2
Heermann's Gull
Caspian Tern

John's River:
Greater Yellowlegs - 20
Northern Harrier
Steller's Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
American Goldfinch
Common Yellowthroat
Turkey Vulture - 3

Foster Road:
Brewer's Blackbird - one filed had 2-300 Brewer's with a few Red-wing
Blackbirds

Wenzel Slough Road:
Cedar Waxwing
Bald Eagle
Northern Flicker
Common Raven

Vance Creek Co. Park:
Pied-biled Grebe - 3