Hello All
I took a chance with the weather today and ended up getting soaked. I
started this morning in the Bay Center area. First thing in the morning I
found the only unexpected bird of the day, an adult SNOW GOOSE with Canadas
(including a few Duskies) in the fields along Bay Center Dike Road. This is
over a month early and probably the earliest ever for Washington. With
incoming tides I scoped the Willapa mudflats from this road and found a
juvenile AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER among a small handfull of Black-bellied.
There were around 1200 peeps on the mudflats.

At the Potter Slough wetland were 12 Cinnamon Teal, but the water was a bit
too high to support many shorebirds.

The weather hit as I headed to Tokeland, and never let up the rest of the
day. I got there before the tide went out, but probably due to high boat
activity in the marina, the godwit flock was conspicuously absent. There
were, however, 11 Willets including a fresh juvenile, a plumage I rarely see
in Washington.

North Cove had 38 Whimbrel, 3 Red Knots, and a decent flock of 700 gulls,
but nothing out of the ordinary.

At Midway Beach were a Semipalmated and three Baird's Sandpipers, 50
Red-necked Phalaropes, 7 Red Knots, 10 Snowy Plovers, and 9 Common Terns.

That's all for now,
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington