Tweets:

We spent Saturday and Sunday morning at the coast. The main excitement
was a continuous stream of seabirds flying south about 200 m off the
shore at Midway Beach. Since the water over the road prevented us
walking closer, we then drove to Grayland State Park and onto the sand
there. Through the scope the birds were evidently shearwaters, and
judging from Lonnie Somers' post on May 25 I have no reason to doubt
that these were Sooty Shearwaters. We estimated about 10-50 a second,
and we watched them for more than 30 min. The entire flock could have
been several 100,000's.

There were no Phalaropes of any species at the pond on Midway beach,
and virtually no waders seen anywhere. We got 20 Bar-Tailed Godwits at
Tokeland, out at water's edge at mid-tide at 7 am this morning.

The only other wader we saw (beside Killdeer), we could not identify.
At Bottle Beach at high tide there was a single, dark-legged,
dark-billed, pale wader with a short, straight (non-droopy) bill. Its
back was gray with the feathers outlined in white. The head had a
slightly darker eye line. There were no markings below. It fed along
water's edge in a methodical way, then rested for 10 min or so on one
leg. In Sibley it looked most like the non-breeding (!) Semi-Palmated
Sandpiper, but with more white bordering the back feathers. The size
was about right. The Jv's are supposed to only come through in July,
and are pictured with more white around the feathers, and with the
comment that they can vary in color, including gray. After lots of
study, we left, confused. Does anyone have a suggestion for us?


Jon Cooper and Diane Doles
Seattle