Hi Tweets

Yesterday, 10 of us from Eastside Audubon made the trip down to the Ocean Shores area. We had a nice day, a brief foggy stretch near Elma but cleared out at the coast.

Our first stop was at the Hoquiam sewer ponds where we had GREEN-WINGED TEAL, MALLARD, NORTHERN PINTAIL, NORTHERN SHOVELER, GADWALL, GREATER & LESSER SCAUP and RUDDY DUCK. The pond also had WESTERN, CALIFORNIA, MEW, HEERMANN'S and GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLs. A few CANADA GEESE were on the edge of the channel. VIOLET-GREEN and BARN SWALLOWs were overhead. A COMMON YELLOWTHROAT WAS heard.

Near the entrance to Ocean Shores we had two large flocks of GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE overhead, a NORTHERN FLICKER, some AMERICAN ROBINs and EUROPEAN STARLINGs.

At the Ocean Shores jetty we had a nice group of rocky shorebirds close in and in good view. Most of the birds were BLACK TURNSTONEs, but there were two WANDERING TATTLERs who obligingly perched on rocks for excellent, protracted scope views. This was one of the highlights for several folks. On the end of the jetty was a large aggregation of gulls. In the Westport channel there were PELAGIC CORMORANT, a flyby BRANDT'S CORMORANT, a PIGEON GUILLEMOT, a COMMON MURRE, flyby groups of SURF and WHITE-WINGED SCOTERs. A ways offshore there were many SOOTY SHEARWATERs. On the beach was a nice group of SANDERLINGs. The special treat was 9 LAPLAND LONGSPURs feeding in the beach wrack, and many of them were in very nice color. These were life birds for some of the group. There were many, many BROWN PELICANs.

We stopped briefly at the sewage plant, with a good group of gulls, plus a KILLDEER, and HORNED GREBE. At the Interpretive Center, where we stopped for lunch, we saw HOUSE FINCH, BLACK-CAPPED and CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEEs, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, SONG and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWs, PINE SISKIN, AMERICAN GOLDFINCH and a lone SNOW GOOSE flew by overhead.

At the remains of Damon Point (the old snowy plover area is now completely washed away and the old lagoon is now open water) we searched out SURF and WHITE-WINGED SCOTERs, COMMON and RED-THROATED LOONs, a lone HARLEQUIN DUCK, a large group of CALIFORNIA GULLS of various ages.

We stopped in Ocean City State Park, hoping to find some passerines but the camping areas were quiet except for about 15 SANDHILL CRANEs that flew past. We walked out to the beach and had lots of gulls, more SANDERLINGs, COMMON, RED-THROATED and PACIFIC LOONs, RHINOCEROS AUKLET, SAVANNAH SPARROW, a PEREGRINE FALCON sortied past out over the water, and back at the parking lot a BEWICK'S WREN sounded off, an ORANGE-CROWNED WABLER zoomed from one side to the other. In the trees at the edge of the parking lot we saw a BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER and GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET.

On the way home we saw a female RING-NECKED PHEASANT on Brady Loop Rd, and not much else til the eastern end. There were had decent looks at a WESTERN SCRUB-JAY. There were also a pair of NORTHERN HARRIERS.

At various spots on the trip we saw COMMON MERGANSER, DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT, GREAT BLUE HERON, TURKEY VULTURE, OSPREY, SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, RED-TAILED HAWK, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, ROCK and BAND-TAILED PIGEONs, a hummingbird species, BELTED KINGFISHER, CEDAR WAXWING, FOX SPARROW, BREWER'S BLACKBIRD and HOUSE SPARROW. We finished with 81 species on a nice day - it was clear most of the day, with some high clouds beginning to move in later. Temperatures ranged from 41 early in the day to about 63 later.

As a famous birder says: "It was a good day".

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville WA
mail to bell asoc at isomedia dot com