At the ponds along the Midway Beach Road access at 8:00 AM yesterday,
July 22, JoLynn Edwards and I found a small assortment of shorebirds:

Snowy Plover - 8
Killdeer - 5
Greater Yellowlegs - 3
Lesser Yellowlegs - 1
Western Sandpiper - a few dozen
Least Sandpiper - 2
Long-billed Dowitcher - 14

The Snowy Plovers were running around on the sand between the west
edge of the pond and the dunes, well south of the (now closed) road
but in easy binocular range. After fifteen minutes or so at the ponds
we continued to the outer beach but the tide was far out and viewing
conditions poor due to fog right along the beach and farther offshore.
Walking back to the car half an hour later we again observed similar
numbers of most of the same shorebirds at the ponds but only one Snowy
Plover.

The tide was so low at Tokeland that clamdiggers were at work within
the boat basin. No shorebirds there, but we did see the Purple Martins
other have reported -- one pair and an additional male.

Hal Opperman
Medina, Washington
hal at catharus.net