Hello Tweets,

Today we spent a half day birding at a few locations in Grays Harbor Co. from the Elma area to Westport. The weather remained great all day with just a few early rain showers that didn't hamper our birding. We encountered several of the recent sightings we and other birders have reported within this route.but located a few additional highlights.

We began our short day at Vance Creek Co. Park near Elma,where 2 TREE SWALLOWS delighted us as they worked there way overhead towards the Schouweiler Rd. wetland.

Further west along the Brady Loop Rd. complex a short visit along Schafer Boom Rd. produced 5 Eurasian Wigeon(4 males,1 female)amongst a large gathering of Am.Wigeon with smaller numbers of Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal and Northern Shovelers. Nearby, along the western portion of Brady Loop Rd. an adult dark-morph "Harlan's"Red-tailed Hawk was observed followed by 3 GLAUCOUS GULLS that were located along the eastern portion of Brady Loop Rd. The Glaucous Gulls were observed amongst a concentrated flock of Glaucous-winged Gulls in a large grassy field along the west side of Brady Loop Rd.,where they plucked at earthworms and other grubs. The Glaucous Gulls consisted of a single 2nd winter plumaged bird followed by two 1st winter plumaged birds. A single adult Thayer's Gull was also observed in the same gull flock followed by 4 Herring Gulls and 1 adult Western Gull. The Glaucous Gulls were not the same birds than we observed near this same location on the 31st of January due to noticeable plumage difference,but are likely the same birds reported by Tim O'Brien on the 4th of February. On our way home this afternoon we located a 4th Glaucous Gull for the day,which was a 1st winter plumaged bird located in a large grassy field amongst other large gulls along the western portion of Wenzel Slough Rd. It was definitely a great day for Glaucous Gulls!

Further west the WHITE-TAILED KITE was again located in open fields along the north side of S.R.105 at Bottle Beach to and from our visit to Westport. During our latter observations of the bird we watched it pursue,catch then eat a vole atop a tall evergreen tree. It took the bird only 15 minute to finish the meal before it continued to sit lazily atop the same tree. 2 Greater Yellowlegs were foraging in a flooded field immediately west of Bottle Beach along the north side of S.R.105.

Our visit to Westport was rather short,where we began with an unsuccessful search for the Harris' Sparrow and overall noticed a great decline in sparrows at that location. A generous scoping from that location along the shores of North Bay produced a single Red-throated Loon,1 Red-necked Grebe, 14 Western Grebes and a Peregrine Falcon as the main highlights.

We ended the day with a nice adult WHITE-THROATED SPARROW observed a short distance south of Hwy.12 along Keys Rd. This is most likely the same individual bird than we noted at this same location on the 7th of December,2006 so perhaps it may overwinter here.


Other noteworthy sightings for the day included the following:

Trumpeter Swan
40 birds along Hwy.12 at Satsop
75 birds along Brady Loop Rd.

"Dusky"Canada Geese
68 birds along Brady Loop Rd.

Am.Kestrel
5 birds from scattered locations including 1 bird along S.R.105 just east of Bottle Beach

Merlin
1 bird of undetermined subspecies along Monte-Brady Loop Rd.
1 female of the "Taiga" subspecies along Brady Loop Rd.

Western Scrub Jay
3 birds along Simmons Rd.(accessed from Monte-Brady Loop Rd.)

Lincoln's Sparrow
2 birds along Brady Loop Rd.

Red Crossbill
20 birds along S.R.105 just west of the Johns River WRA



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit513 at msn.com