Hi Tweeters,

Tweeters,

I was glad to read Charlie Wright's report of birding at Ocean Shores on
Saturday because it gave me a plan for Sunday and Monday. Thanks Charlie.

I arrived at Ocean Shores at about 10:30am and immediately drove to the
Point Brown Jetty to see the 125,000 Sooth Shearwaters. Unfortunately, I
fell short of seeing that many....I saw 1 (one). I also looked for the
large flock of rocky shorebirds and found....one BLACK TURNSTONE and one
SURFBIRD. Things were not going according to plan. I did, however, count
51 WHIMBRELs flying south and some NORTHERN PINTAIL flocks heading south.

I then decided to check the Game Range. I walked out and started to check
the vast habitat for Buff-breasted Sandpipers. After a while, I found a
flock (!) of BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERs flying around and counted 7 after they
landed at the edge of the salicornia. When I scoped them, I found that
there were 9! I counted them again ten minutes later and got 11! At this
point, I found that a PECTORAL SANDPIPER had joined them. It reached a
point that, whenever a flock of shorebirds would get up to fly, there would
be at least two Buff-breasted Sandpipers which would join the flock. At
about 1:30pm, three Buffies got up and flew around calling and looked like
they departed for points south. I don't know if they did or not. At one
point, I saw 2 come in (after the three possibly flew off) from the north
and land but never found them with the others so could't tell for sure if
they were part of the original 11. More flocks of WHIMBREL were flying
over, one flock had two AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVERs (id'd by call) which landed
briefly. However, the local PEREGRINE got to them before I did and they
flew off quickly. It was definitely a heavy shorebird migration day. As
the tide rose, more birds started to show up including one BAIRD'S
SANDPIPER. My totals are at the end of this report.

At about 5:00pm, I left the shorebirds and decided to check the Brown Avenue
jetty again. Even though there were about 1000 people there, I walked out
with my scope and sat on the beach and scanned the ocean. I was surprised
how much it had changed from the morning. There were many shearwaters
flying by and I watched them for the next 90 minutes. I estimated 175 per
minute over 90 minutes. I did see three PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERs and a
surprise MANX SHEARWATER which I saw very well and was able to eliminate the
other possible small black and white shearwaters. Lots of birds were flying
south including 1000s of shorebirds. There was also a flyby POMARINE JAEGER
displaying maximum spoonage (a full tail). Shorebirds included more
WHIMBREL and RED-NECKED PHALAROPE.

I spent the night in the car and ventured back to the Brown Avenue jetty
this morning. It was pretty slow. New shorebirds included a flock of 8
migrating RED KNOT (flew over the jetty and contnued south) and a
single WANDERING TATTLER on the jetty. At the Game Range, there were two
groups of BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERs - 8 and 3 and the continuing PECTORAL
SANDPIPER. I head a flyover LAPLAND LONGSPUR (the same bird that Charlie
had?). I left six bathing Buff-breasted Sandpipers at noon today. All in
all, a good two days of birding. Persistence paid and the plan did come
together.

September 2:
Brown Avenue Jetty (10:30am-11:30am)
Whimbrel 51
Northern Pintail 26
Peregrine 1 (hunting)
Surfbird 1 (almost 0 - see Peregrine)
Sanderling 3
Least Sandpiper 1
Black Turnstone 1
Sooty Shearwater 1
Rhinoceros Auklet 1
White-winged Scoter 6
Swainson's Thrush 0
all three loons, Surf Scoter, Common Murres, pelicans, cormorants, etc

Game Range (12pm-5:00pm) - only counted shorebirds and migrants

Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 14
Baird's Sandpiper 1
Western Sandpiper 4058
Least Sandpiper 273
Whimbrel 67
AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER 2
Black-bellied Plover 1
BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER 11 (maybe 13-15)
Greater Yellowlegs 12
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Semipalmated Plover 6
Marbled Godwit 31
Red-necked Phalarope 25
Northern Pintail 70
American Pipit 7
Swainson's Thrush 0

Brown Avenue Jetty (5:30pm - 7pm)

Northern Pintail 105
Green-winged Teal 1
Whimbrel 55
Sanderling 45
Western Sandpiper 2800
Surfbird 30
Black Turnstone 8
Red-necked Phalarope 500
unidentified shorebird 1000
Sooty Shearwater 15,750 (90 minutes at 175/minute)
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER 3
MANX SHEARWATER 1
Pomarine Jaeger 1 (full tail)
Black-bellied Plover 18
Marbled Godwit 2
all three loons, Surf and White-winged Scoters, ridiculous numbers of Brown
Pelican and Heermann's Gulls, Common Murres, Western, California, and
Glaucous-winged Gulls, etc
Swainson's Thrush 0

Let's hope that the Buff-breasts and the shearwater stream continue for the
upcoming WOS meeting!

Jim Danzenbaker
Battle Ground, Clark County, WA

--
Jim Danzenbaker
Battle Ground, WA
360-723-0345
jdanzenbaker at gmail.com