Subject: [Tweeters] Ocean Shores, Rock Sandpipers, Kittiwake (long)
Date: Nov 1 09:53:01 2008
From: Kathy Andrich - chukarbird at yahoo.com



Hi Tweeters,

I took a special day off on Thursday and went to Ocean Shores for some birding. After driving through a quiet golf course I went to Pt. Brown Jetty. Four Ravens kept me entertained for quite awhile and I could have watched them much longer but the rockpipers were calling. The Ravens were diving down on each other and on the beach were strutting around interacting with their head and neck feathers puffed out. Six Sanderlings were running around near the jetty and I found 2 Rock Sandpipers in with Black Turnstones and Surfbirds. Only the second time I have seen Rock Sandpiper and I had plenty of time to enjoy them this time around. There is kind of a sand berm next to jetty I could stand on and look down on them and approach fairly close without disturbing them.

The sewage ponds were pretty quiet so I went to the Game Range. Plenty of raptors here, Northern Harrier, 2 adult Bald Eagles, and at least one for sure and possibly two Peregrine Falcons. When I went to walk back to the inner ponds the falcon was diving down on presumably a second falcon while calling over and over. I never saw the second bird. It could have been a different raptor though the falcon was diving on. The falcon sounded like it seriously wanted the other bird out of there. Shorebirds here were distant dowitchers, Greater Yellowlegs, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, and Killdeer. I saw a weird gull with a black tail band and went around to check closer and the closest thing I could find to what I had seen was an immature with some black marks on the tail feathers, not a band. The one that got away I guess. A pair of River Otters were fun to see here.

The game range from Tonquin was very wet and I didn't stay very long.

I hadn't been to Damon Point since last Decembers storm and was impressed all over again with natures power. It is much changed. It was very windy here. There were some Black-bellied Plovers (about 6) mixed in with a large Dunlin flock. There was a huge flock of as best I could tell purely California Gulls here. The pond where golden-plover sometimes are was completely scoured out on the right hand side of it with little to no vegetation left. I walked to the end of the pond and around over to the road and back to my car. Two different Peregrine Falcons were here, one was perched on driftwood and I accidently flushed one.

Near the interpretive center a weird gull landed on one of the telephone polls and I got a good look at it's back only, wall to wall darkish grey with white fringe on the trailing edge and black wingtips. When I reached in for my binoculars they somehow got completely wrapped around the steering wheel and of course the gull was long gone by the time my bins were disentangled. At home I realized it must have been a Black-legged Kittiwake. Only the second time ever for that bird too, too bad I couldn't enjoy it more, but the field marks nailed it. Good thing for notes.

The major last stop was Bill's Spit. The tide was receding. Tons of waterfowl here mostly Northern Pintail, and American Wigeon with one Eurasian and also a ton of gulls, mixed flock. A largish flock of Dunlin too but nothing unusual. A Savanah Sparrow had me going with some odd behavior, it kept running along the edge of the salicornia and dashing behind driftwood until finally I got a good look and realized it was "only" a Savanah Sparrow. On the way back to the care was a lovely mixed flock including Chestnut-backed and Black-capped Chickadee, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Bewick's Wren, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and oddly a spotted breasted thrush, most likely a Hermit Thrush. It was skulky and by the time I realized it was a thrush it was gone.

I saw a fourth peregrine in town flying in to perch on the big tower there. Four peregrines and an implied fifth was pretty amazing to me. I suppose some of them could have been the same bird but I doubt it. It was a fun day and except for the wind the weather wasn't bad.

My home computer is acting up and I hope this posts ok.

Kathy
Roosting in Kent, near Lake Meridian
(chukarbird at yahoo dot com)
Any driving directions contained within this message are given as a courtesy, beware, author is directionally challenged and will not vouch for them.