Hi Tweets,



I spent Sunday visiting a number of spots in search of shorebirds. I had
little luck until I hit Crockett Lake on Whidbey Island, where there were
too many birds, too far away, and not enough time:



4 Semipalmated Sandpipers

400 Western Sandpipers

50 Least Sandpipers

2 Red-necked Phalaropes

2 Greater Yellowlegs

10 Semipalmated Plovers

and many birds too far out to ID



Also at Crockett Lake was a big flock of gulls at the east end, with a
number of Heermann?s, 5 Bonaparte?s, and Caspian and Common Terns.



Earlier visits to other sites produced few shorebirds: the Montlake Fill
(nothing but Killdeer), Llama Lake (Least and Western Sandpipers), and
Stanwood STP (22 Red-necked Phalaropes, Snipe, and Least Sandpipers).
Purple Martins seem to be staging/migrating; I found small groups of them at
several sights on Whidbey and around Stanwood.



The other main highlight of the day was an American Black Duck at the
Stanwood STP, previously reported by John Wallace. This bird may have some
Mallard genes mixed in, but it looks much more like a Black Duck than the
many Mallard x Black Duck hybrids I?ve seen in the eastern US. The
diversity of ducks at Stanwood was stunning for western Washington in August
? Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, Shoveler,
Gadwall, Mallard, all 3 teal species, Wigeon, Ruddy Duck - and many of them
in ?eclipse? plumage.



Good birding,

Matt Dufort

Seattle, WA


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