Hi Tweeters:
A small group of us from Rainier Audubon saw a TROPICAL KINGBIRD near the footbridge
at Bottle Beach today, Sat, Sept 29. It didn't call but we ticked off some great
field marks. It was very bright in color. Green back, dark tail, darker than its
back, no white along sides of tail, notched tail. The yellow underneath was very
bright, and actually two-toned. Bright yellow on the belly, entending up to a
slightly different-color yellow on the breast. We saw the bird about 1:30 in the
rain and wind as we headed back from the beach. It first perched on the tall fir
next to the bridge, then flew to some other bushes near the bridge.
Earlier we were almost victims of the dreaded "storm surge" in trying to judge when
to arrive for incoming tide at Bottle Beach. The high tide today was predicted to be
at 3:08pm. I always play it safe and arrive 3 hours early. So we arrived at noon, 3
hours early,and walked out to the beach. The tide was already in to the pilings.
What the heck..... There were just BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, and WESTERN and LEAST
SANDPIPERS. At least we saw those before the tide came in.
Despite the rain, wind, and the storm surge we had a good day. We visited Foster
Road along Brady Loop and saw several warblers along it: BLACK-THROATED GRAY - 1,
TOWNSEND'S WARBLER - 1, YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER - 4. At the south end of Foster Rd and
a little east on Brady Loop Rd. there were 9 MEADOWLARKS, and a pair of AMERICAN
KESTRELS.
Our next stop at John's River yielded a number of birds seen from the parking lot,
including 33 GREATER YELLOWLEGS, 1 LESSER YELLOWLEGS, 1 PECTORAL SANDPIPER.
It started to rain as we approached Bottle Beach at Noon. After Bottle Beach we
traveled to Westport. Looking to the right (east) in the big fields as you travel
north on Montesano about 2:30pm (high tide) we viewed 9 GREAT EGRETS. At the gas
station at Westport, we turned right to reach the end of the gravel road by the Coast
Guard Stn. Boy there are a lot of trucks parked in there now. We walked out to the
water by the chain link fence past a huge junk yard and turned left just past the
fence to walk over and view the marina. There was a WANDERING TATTLER right below
us, and a molting (brown-color) BRANT.
The rain really picked up, so we headed down to Tokeland. A stop at Graveyard Spit
was poor for birds, as the tide was very, very high. I've never seen the water so
high there. Down at Tokeland Marina we viewed 1000? MARBLED GODWITS, with
SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, AND WILLETS. 3 GR-WHT-FRONTED GEESE flew by.
The rain and wind eventually almost blew us away, and we headed home after a
surprisingly good day of birding.
Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines, WA
linusq at att.net