Tweets, Monday, 7/20, I birded from Tenino to Ocean Shores with the
objective of compiling my longest July day list (ended with 103 spp) and
finding the King Eider at Damon Point/Oyhut (nope). I had never birded the
coast in July. The trip highlight was watching the thousands of shearwaters
amassed a few hundred yards off Pt. Brown jetty.

After a brief stop along Cyber Lake behind North Beach school to spot the
roosting Greater Yellowlegs, I arrived at Bill's Spit at 1:00, where scads
of shorebirds and gulls were congregated just after high tide. I finally
picked out 1 Semipalmated Sandpiper out of about 4-500 fidgety Westerns and
Leasts. A group of 20 or 30 Semipalmated Plovers were segregated out toward
the point. Hiding out among the plovers was a nice surprise, a single
Red-necked Phalarope that was quite vocal but shortly took off for some
unknown reason. The larger shorebirds preferred the tip of the spit: ~35
Marbled Godwits, 11 Whimbrels, and 10 Short-billed Dowitchers. While
scanning this lineup the crowd parted to reveal the second nice surprise, a
washed-out looking Red Knot. It easily could have remained obscured behind
the larger birds and its legs and reddish underside counted as just another
dowitcher. The California Gulls slightly outnumbered the Westerns, both
mostly full adults, with a fair number of Ring-billeds and Caspian Terns
mixed in.

In the residential neighborhood here PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER, WINTER WREN,
and OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER were singing.

Next stop was the marina but first, just over the little knoll past the
clubhouse, I pulled off near the fire hydrant to check the brush and wooded
edge in hopes of adding Orange-crowned Warbler to the day list. With just a
few pishes I got far more than I bargained for. A bedraggled Yellow-rumped
Warbler, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and 2 Orange-crowned Warblers came in at eye
level to investigate. Plus a menagerie of residents nearby: Spotted Towhee,
Bewick's Wren, both Chickadees, Bushtit, Hutton's Vireo, and Golden-crowned
Kinglet.

I watched a Pigeon Guillemot pair frolic at the mouth of the marina. The
jetty hosted a second flock of roosting large shorebirds, perhaps 60 birds
all told. A Marsh Wren sang enthusiastically at the barrier dam/lake outlet
across the street. Off topic: An experienced fisher was stumped by a catch
off Point Brown jetty with blackish 2.5 ft. body, somewhat blunt head (like
a bass), large orange spots more- or- less aligned along the flank, and a
bright baby-blue mouth.

>From 3 to 5pm the female King Eider successfully eluded detection, even
though I covered from the base of Damon Point to nearly the stream
transecting the Oyhut Game Range. Present were 1 Common and 3 Red-throated
Loons, a small Grebe that I assume was a Horned "leaping" and disappearing
beneath the surface, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, at least 1 Long-tailed Duck,
and several White-winged and Surf Scoters. Standing vigil on the rocks were
Brown Pelicans, all three Cormorant species, a lone Ruddy Turnstone, and a
few gulls.

Just off the tip of the jetty an endless, dark cloud of Sooty Shearwaters
swirled in an orderly, clock-wise procession. For over an hour I watched,
mesmerized, by what is truly one the great spectacles of God's creation. A
steady stream of birds was fueling the vortex from the north, building tier
upon tier upon tier upward and expanding the circuit ever southward. Here
and there a single or dozen individuals would fall out from the ranks to
join the others feeding on the surface, so that there were as many
shearwaters airborne as not. I attempted to pick out the oddball shearwater
by focusing my scope at the point about a quarter mile into the harbor mouth
where the birds banked to the right, catching the full evening sunlight,
before making the return leg into the stiff north breeze. Otherwise my view
was only into bright sunshine. Just as I was starting to pack up, as if on
cue, the dizzying procession veered left toward the heart of the harbor,
circled back counter-clockwise and returned to the northern apex of the
circuit, passing within 60 or 70 yards. Wow! Try as I might, I could not
detect anything other than a Sooty.

Also at the jetty were a host of Heerman's and Western Gulls, 3 Surfbirds
with 5 Black Turnstones, and a few intermittent Rhinoceros Auklets racing
past with as many as four tiny, shiny fish dangling from the beak. A long,
broken chain of Common Murres, following roughly the line of demarcation
between clear and muddy water, extended out into the harbor farther than I
could see.

I intentionally skipped the trek out behind the sewage treatment plant
(where, no doubt, the eider was hiding out -- judging from Hal Opperman's
post) because I was weary and hoped to catch the CANVASBACK (reported by
Kathy Andrich) at the Hoquiam STP before it got too dark, as it was now
already 7:30pm. Indeed, I was able to add this bird to my day list. My stop
here earlier had netted GREAT BLUE HERON, Canada GOOSe, Mallard, Hooded
Merganser, a Gadwall hen with chicks, Ospreys still at the nest, and
CALIFORNIA GULLs galore.

About half of the day's total was recorded in the morning at several
locations in and around Tenino. The most interesting sighting was a VIRGINIA
RAIL at the Mull Street marsh that persisted in feeding out in the open. I'd
be happy to share details via email.

Good birding!
Paul Hicks / Tenino / phicks AT accessgrace.org