Hi tweets, today I was joined by Jeff Jendro and Alan Richards to tour the southern half of Grays Harbor and Tokeland. Jeff and I started early before sunrise in the Chehalis Wildlife Area (Schouweiler Road wetland) and then made our up into the Elma/Satsop foothills and then hit the Brady Loop before picking up Alan in Aberdeen. Here's the highlights:

Chehalis Wildlife Area

A pre-dawn visit to the first pond gave us a heard-only AMERICAN BITTERN, which was our target bird for this spot. MARSH WRENS were busy singing at the early hour.

Elma/Satsop foothills

We drove a different route this morning and had an immediate visual of a female SOOTY GROUSE hunkered down in the middle of the logging road we were on. A few others were heard booming once again.

Brady Loop (west side)

Fog hampered our efforts on the eastside of the loop this morning, but the westside produced nicely. One of the puddles, had one GREATER YELLOWLEGS and three LESSER YELLOWLEGS allowing for great comparisons.

Bottle Beach

There was a good amount of shorebirds present this morning before high tide. They included BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, KILLDEER (heard from the wetland), one WHIMBREL, nine MARBLED GODWITS, WESTERN SANDPIPER, DUNLIN, and SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER. A dark MERLIN casually flew from behind us while we were viewing the shorebirds and didn't really make a serious attempt to catch anything. It must have already been full!

Westport

On the rocks inside the marina, there was a sizable flock of WESTERN SANDPIPER with about 20 BLACK TURNSTONES. Also, in a different spot we found five LEAST SANDPIPERS roosting on the rocks. Tom Aversa spotted some ROCK SANDPIPERS as well, but they eluded us.

Midway Beach

As reported, the road is closed and the pond is very full. In the pond today were over a thousand GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE taking a break from their trek north. The outer beach yielded several flocks of SANDERLING and one small group of BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. We were unable to spot any Snowy Plovers.

Tokeland

Gobs of MARBLED GODWITS were present on the outer jetty wall with some DOWITCHERS mixed in. Also, inside the marina on the mud were three WHIMBREL and five WILLET.

The sun was out all day on the coast and the wind was minimal. It was a great day! See everyone at the Shorebird Festival this weekend!

Tim O'Brien
Elma, WA (for a few days)
mailto: kertim7179 at yahoo dot com