Hi Tweeters,

I had a really nice day of birding on an exceptionaly
nice weather day out at the coast. I left at o dark
thirty and arrived at Ocean Shores about 7:45.
Driving in by the big OS signs a raccoon scurried into
the salal.

Quick run by the golf course saw 2 Cackling Geese and
some "funky" molting gulls. Then went to Pt Brown
Jetty, the weather was not so cooperative there, fog
and wind but after this stop the weather improved.
Two Northern Harriers flew through here and I saw
California Gulls, Heerman's Gulls, hybrid Gulls, and a
few Western Gulls. Also Surf Scoter, White-winged
Scoter, Double-crested Cormorant, and Pelagic
Cormorant, plus a few Brown Pelicans. I could see
there was the rock loving type of sandpipers but the
fog wouldn't let me identify them.

At Ocean Shores Sewage Treatment Ponds, I saw the
usual suspect ducks, one Greater-white Fronted Goose
poked its head above the near rim and popped back
down. The gate was locked.

At this end of the Game Range looking towards Tonquin
there was two Peregrine Falcons, one on the ground,
one perched on deadwood nearby. One was somewhat
darker on the back and the front, especially the lower
belly so possibly a younger bird. At the end of the
rocks were a few Black Turnstones. Also my first of
two Red-throated Loons here. Beginning here Common
Loons were common the rest of the day. All throughout
the Ocean Shores area Golden-crowned Sparrows were
singing up a storm. I did not go to Tonquin due to
hunting activity over there.

At Damon Point a Peregrine flew off the beach across
the left handed bay and dove on ducks along the way.
At the far end of the pond (which has refilled since
the conference) I saw 11 Golden Plovers! I could
identify Pacific for sure but can't rule out American
for some of them. I don't see these often enough to
feel confident on the ID of all of them. Two of the
birds were really cooperative in lifting their wings
slightly above the tail to really see they were the
same length. I have read reports in the past of
double digit Golden Plovers here and this was my first
time to see this, very nice. A Common Loon was in the
pond but I'm afraid I scared it off. The plovers were
nervous to a certain extant but never flushed and I
kept a good distance between me and them. I saw 2
Western Meadowlarks here and flushed a flock of about
6 Horned Larks. About 20 American Pipits here.

I drove around the Silver King Motel area a few times
but did not see anything Kingbird-like that Charlie
reported. Driving through town a Merlin passed by.
Made a few other quick stops towards Westport without
seeing much of interest. The state was working at
Bottle Beach so I passed right by there.

At Westport on the walking pier at high tide there
were 19 Surfbirds, and 9 Black Turnstone roosting on
the part that sticks out from the corner of the
walkway. No Rock Sandpipers yet. A huge flock of
likely Dunlin were flying over the end of the Westport
spit.

At Tokeland I saw 100's and 100's of Double-crested
Cormorants out in the far bay. It was amazing how
many had congregated there. My second Red-throated
Loon was here as well as about 6 Pacific Loons. The
Marbed Godwits were mostly out on the rockery away
from the marina. 7 Willets were in among them. I
could not locate any Dowitchers but I bet they were
there.

>From the rock wall near Bayshore RV Park looking
toward Graveyard Spit there was 37 Long-billed Curlew,
and about 7-8 Caspian Terns on the spit. I thought I
heard Caspian Tern earlier but since I didn't see one
I was ready to add them to the list of Starling
mimicry.

Midway beach was quiet. I didn't try for the Snowy
Plovers but did try to locate Lapland Longspur or
Horned Lark with no luck. This has refilled with
water too since the conference.

At the Bay City Sign at the end of the bridge there
was 4 Great Egrets.

Last stop Bottle Beach after the workers had left, the
tide was way out already so viewing was tough between
that and the sun setting. Huge flocks of ducks here,
most of them American Wigeon with Northern Pintail and
Green-winged Teal mixed in. There were a lot of
shorebirds too and I could only ID Black-bellied
Plover and Greater Yellowlegs by call. Near where the
trail just enters the beach at the first sand I
noticed a lot of holes on the way out and on the way
back in inspected them closer and realized they were
made by shorebirds with large shorebird footprints all
over there.

It was hard in a way to be out to the coast and
realize I won't run into the dynamic duo of Patrick
Sullivan and his mom Ruth again here. I usually ran
into them at Midway Beach but also all over in this
area. Right now Ruth is recovering from her second
hip surgery but she is planning to get out birding
again. She hopes to place Patrick's ashes at Damon
Point at some later time.

Kathy
Roosting in S King County



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