Matt Dufort and I went out to the coast yesterday where we enjoyed the
Glaucous Gull show. We started our day at the Westport Jetty where there
was a Black-legged Kittiwake and a male Harlequin Duck. While checking the
Westport Marina a flock of "rockpipers" flew over and landed nearby. We
were rewarded with great views of Black Turnstones, a Surfbird and 14 Rock
Sandpipers. Also in the area were a few Herring Gulls and a ratty immature
Thayer's.

Pulling up to North Cove in anticipation of looking through the gulls we
were briefly disappointed to only see three, but that soon changed when we
realized one was an very white Glaucous Gull. At Tokeland there was a male
Eurasian Wigeon, a few dowitchers and several Willets in addition to the
Marbled Godwit flock.

Just north of Warrenton Cannery Road we ran into a nice group of 11 Snowy
Plovers. The female Cinnamon Teal was on the Ocosta Third Street pond and
the White-tailed Kite was perched across the street, north of the path out
to Bottle Beach. While driving down Ocosta Third Street a mostly white bird
flew up off the side of the road and back into the nearby trees. It
appeared to be a partially albino robin but we never got a conclusive look
at it.

At the Hoquiam STP there were our first 2 Barn Swallows of the year, and our
second Glaucous Gull of the day. On Keys and Wenzel Slough Roads we found
Trumpeter and Tundra Swans but didn't see the Bewick's. There were at least
three more young Glaucous Gulls and a nice-looking adult. The male and
female Redhead and the Western Grebe were at Vance Creek County Park. With
a quick run over to Brady Loop Road as it was getting dark we found 3 more
Glaucous Gulls. Two of these could have been the same birds as those seen
on Keys Road, but one was certainly new, bringing our total for the day to
at least 7!

On the way back we swung through the Capitol Forest to go owling for a
couple hours. We were surprised to find relatively few owls considering the
conditions, but we did have a nice variety of species: 1 Western
Screech-Owl, 1 Great Horned Owl, 1 Northern Pygmy-Owl & 4 Northern Saw-whet
Owls.

Good birding,
Ryan Merrill
Kirkland, WA