Hey Tweets,

Anna Kopitov, Jeff Cohen and I made a trip out to the Ocean yesterday, and turned up some good birds. My first time really birding the area, so I hope I don't misspeak as I'm trying to describe where we went!

We stopped briefly at Mud Bay near Olympia, and found a Greater Yellowlegs, Kingfisher, and some swallows.

At the Hoquiam Sewage Treatment pond, we had Brown Pelicans, Ruddy Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, and a very busy Red-Necked Phalarope. In the trees on the opposite side of the street, there were several Common Yellowthroats, and a flock of Chickadees that included some warblers that went unidentified.

In Ocean Shores, we first stopped at the North Jetty, where we found ~10 Black Turnstones, 2 Surfbirds, and a Wandering Tattler working the rocks. Climbing the jetty, we found Common Murre as well.

The Ocean Shores Game Range was new for Anna and I, so only Jeff came ready with waders! We arrived here by about 10:00, close to high tide, and found Western and Least Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plovers and Killdeer. Heading out into the nasty, muddy, mosquito ridden marsh, we were rewarded with a flock of 7 Buff Breasted Sandpipers (!), they stayed near us for about a half-hour, and were joined by a Pectoral Sandpiper as well. Amazing how willing they were to walk up fairly close (15-20 feet) to us, and we were given a close fly-by once when they flushed. At least one darker individual grabbed our attention but seemed to just be a slight variation in color. Scoters (White winged and Surf) were in the harbor, a Great Egret landed in the Game Range as we were leaving, and Northern Harriers were working the north end of the Range as well.

The Tokeland Marina had 50 or so Marbled Godwits, with a Short-Billed Dowitcher standing in with them. We were amazed at how small Dowitchers are (or how big Godwits are), and at how reluctant a Godwit is to just put its other foot down instead of nearly falling over...

We also found 3 Willets and a Least Sandpiper here, along with a huge flock of quite vocal Heermans Gulls.

Midway beach at 5 was pretty empty, with a flyover from a Semipalmated Plover being the highlight of that stop.

A wonderful trip, and 7 life birds for a relative shorebird newbie!

Misses for the trip: King Eider, Sooty Shearwater, Hudsonian Godwit, and Snowy Plover.

-Tim Brennan
Renton



_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live: Make it easier for your friends to see what you?re up to on Facebook.
http://windowslive.com/Campaign/SocialNetworking?ocid=PID23285::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:SI_SB_facebook:082009