Subject: [Tweeters] WA Coast and Olympic Peninsula
Date: Aug 11 09:31:16 2008
From: Michael Woodruff - crazybirder98 at hotmail.com




My family and I did some camping on the Washington coast and Olympic Penninsula last week into the weekend. Now we've moved up and are in Whistler BC for the next week, but I wanted to report on some birding I was able to do down in WA along the coast. I first had opportunity to bird Ocean Shores. The first evening (8/6/08) I did a short seawatch of sorts from the outer beach by Best Western. Thursday morning (8/7/08) I birded Damon Point, the Pt Brown Jetty, and the outer beach once again, from Pacific Blvd. I looked hard for Elegant Terns but couldn't turn any up anywhere.

Location: Ocean Shores Outer Beach near Best Western (1810-1835)
Observation date: 8/6/08

Surf Scoter 8
White-winged Scoter 2
Sooty Shearwater 3000 About 120/min in a constant stream south
Brown Pelican 100
Semipalmated Plover 2
Western Sandpiper 80
Heermann's Gull 45
California Gull 400
Western Gull 8
Caspian Tern 3
Common Murre 200
Rhinoceros Auklet 12

Location: Damon Point/Oyhut (0630-0650)
Observation date: 8/7/08

Canada Goose 24
Surf Scoter 240
White-winged Scoter 40
Sooty Shearwater 250 Moving out of the bay
Brown Pelican 75
Brandt's Cormorant 2
Great Blue Heron 4
GREAT EGRET 1
Semipalmated Plover 12
Whimbrel 6
RUDDY TURNSTONE 1 molting adult on a rock with gulls
Western Sandpiper 6 5 ad, 1 juv
Heermann's Gull 6
Ring-billed Gull 10
California Gull 120
Western Gull 8
Caspian Tern 60 14 juvs
Pigeon Guillemot 1
American Crow 25
Barn Swallow 15
Cedar Waxwing 1
Orange-crowned Warbler (lutescens) 1
Common Yellowthroat 2 juvs
Spotted Towhee 1
Savannah Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 4
Brown-headed Cowbird 1 juv


Location: Ocean Shores--Pt. Brown Jetty (0705-0725)
Observation date: 8/6/08

Surf Scoter 8
Western Grebe 1
Sooty Shearwater 50 Just a few far offshore
Brown Pelican 65
Brandt's Cormorant 2
Semipalmated Plover 12
Killdeer 1
Wandering Tattler 1 Alt. plumage adult, 2 more on 1pm visit
RUDDY TURNSTONE 1 Adult on 1pm visit
Surfbird 8 Seen on 1pm visit
Sanderling 1
Heermann's Gull 200
California Gull 150
Western Gull 5
Glaucous-winged Gull 1
Caspian Tern 5
Common Murre 20
Rhinoceros Auklet 60
American Crow 2
Common Raven 1
Barn Swallow 3


Location: Ocean Shores Outer Beach - Pacific Blvd (0745-0820)
Observation date: 8/7/08

Sooty Shearwater 500 Passing in a constant stream south, far offshore
Brown Pelican 50
Semipalmated Plover 500 adults
Sanderling 600 adults
Western Sandpiper 350 75% juvs, 25% adults
Dunlin 5 Molting adults
Heermann's Gull 20
California Gull 250
Western Gull 30
Caspian Tern 35
Common Murre 100
Rhinoceros Auklet 16


We camped next at Kalaloch Campground in Jefferson County. A COMMON NIGHTHAWK winged by headed south down the beach at dusk. Friday morning, I did a seawatch from 6am-7:50am from the main beach overlook.

Location: Olympic NP--Kalaloch (0600-0750)
Observation date: 8/8/08

Surf Scoter 548 Large rafts
White-winged Scoter 15
Red-throated Loon 8 Alt. plumage
Pacific Loon 4
Common Loon 3
Sooty Shearwater 15 Just a few far offshore
Brown Pelican 114
Brandt's Cormorant 4
Pelagic Cormorant 4
Semipalmated Plover 34
Sanderling 5
Western Sandpiper 65 Juvs
Least Sandpiper 40 Juvs
Heermann's Gull 500
California Gull 1000
Western Gull 12
Glaucous-winged Gull 1
Common Murre 130
Marbled Murrelet 6 Fast flybys and a couple on the water
Rhinoceros Auklet 900
Steller's Jay 3
American Crow 10
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
Brown Creeper 2
Winter Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 1
European Starling 2
Orange-crowned Warbler (lutescens) 2
MacGillivray's Warbler 1 Juv
Song Sparrow 1
Red Crossbill 15



On Friday afternoon, we did a couple hikes at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic Nat'l Park (Clallam County). It took quite a long time to reach the parking lot due to the road resurfacinig project that is going on right now. They weren't joking when they said to expect delays. We stumbled on a family of SOOTY GROUSE along the trail near the visitor center, and fed about a dozen GRAY JAYS from the last parking area.

Location: Olympic NP--Hurricane Ridge (1530-1915)
Observation date: 8/8/08

Sooty Grouse 6 Pair and 4 grown chicks
American Kestrel 1
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) 3
Olive-sided Flycatcher 1
Gray Jay 12
Common Raven 6
American Pipit 6
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) 4


We camped at Dungeness Recreation Area, and Saturday morning I made the 9 mile round-trip walk out Dungeness Spit to the Caspian Tern colony. There were no Arctic Terns present -- either they aren't there this year or they take off early. Anybody know? I did get a nice mix of shorebirds and other birds from the hike though, and enjoyed the 600 or so pairs of Caspian Terns in the noisy colony.

Location: Dungeness NWR
Observation date: 8/9/08

Green-winged Teal 18
Greater Scaup 2
Harlequin Duck 42 In a large flock near the colony
Surf Scoter 7
White-winged Scoter 2
Pacific Loon 2 2 Flyby adults in alt. plumage
Common Loon 2
Red-necked Grebe 4 2 ad, 2 juv
Pelagic Cormorant 4
Great Blue Heron 4
Bald Eagle 11 2 ad, 9 juv
Peregrine Falcon (Peale's) 1 Juv
Black-bellied Plover 10 Adults in various stages of molt
Semipalmated Plover 80 Adults
Killdeer 1
Black Oystercatcher 7
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Whimbrel 17
Sanderling 61
Western Sandpiper 835 Juvs except 2 adults
Least Sandpiper 15 Juvs
Long-billed Dowitcher 4
Red-necked Phalarope 2 Juvs
Heermann's Gull 10
California Gull 955
Glaucous-winged Gull 610
Caspian Tern 1200 Active colony with nearly grown chicks
Common Murre 1
Pigeon Guillemot 60
Marbled Murrelet 7 3 0n the water near the tern colony and others along the spit
Rhinoceros Auklet 80 Small groups on water and flybys
TUFTED PUFFIN 1 Close flyby
Barn Swallow 29
European Starling 1
Savannah Sparrow 1



Later we took the Coho Ferry to Victoria, and leaving the dock we had 2 BROWN PELICANS and 1 female BLACK SCOTER. The rest of trip only yielded Common Murres, Rhinocerus Auklets, and Heermann's Gulls.

All in all it was great to combine family time with some birding time and I saw some decent stuff. The weather up here in Whistler is fantastic and the mountains are spectacular!

Cheers!
Michael Woodruff
Spokane, WA

This report was based off reports to eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

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