I'm back on the westside for a few days and spent most of today birding the Elma, Satsop, Brady, and Hoquiam areas. It was great to be back in my old turf. I was expecting more water in the fields of the valley, but only the Brady Loop area held the usual spots of sheet water ponds.

My wife joined me today and our most productive area was the Brady Loop area. Not finding any swans or gulls along Wenzel Slough Road had us wondering where they were to start off. Arriving, on the east side of Brady Loop we immediatley spotted the huge flock of swans. This flock consisted of mainly Trumpeters, but there were a smaller amount of Tundras present as well. Also, 15 Snow Geese and one Greater White-fronted Goose. Not too mention the hundreds of Canada and Cackling Geese present here too. No gulls were seen on the loop though.

On the south end of Foster Road, we found lots of wintering shorebirds with Black-bellied Plovers being the most common. Dunlin were present in good amounts as well. I did spot one Greater Yellowlegs and one Long-billed Dowitcher as well. Near the WDFW fishing access, close to 30 Western Meadowlarks were seen on both sides of the road.

Ducks were scattered about and we finally found two Eurasian Wigeons on Moore Road which is on the north side of Highway 12 just east of Satsop. Schafer Boom road on the far westside of the Brady Loop area is a traditional spot for Eurasian Wigeon, but the flock of American Wigeon didn't hold any there today. Although, here was 9 more Greater White-fronted Geese with the ducks and Canada Geese.

The Hoquiam STP yielded the usual large numbers of both Scaup species. A couple Ruddy Ducks were on the pond as well. I did manage a glimpse of one Mew Gull in the sewage treatment area. I'm sure there were more, but gulls seemed to be elusive today.

Raptors were scarce with only 3 Red-tailed Hawks, 4 Northern Harriers, and 2 Bald Eagles seen all day. Ending the day up in the hills near Elma, we only picked up a Winter Wren with no quail or grouse seen.

Good birding,

Tim O'Brien
Cheney, WA
mailto: kertim7179 at yahoo dot com