While out on a 5-mile run last night around 7 p.m. I got two good,
naked-eye looks at a single shorebird on the rocks along the Ruston
Way waterfront in Tacoma. The bird was gray above, had a relatively
long black bill with no perceptible curve to the bill, had an easily
visible eye line and yellow legs. The bird was not tall enough to be a
yellowlegs, and although it did display some slight bobbing behavior
like a Spotted Sandpiper, it was clearly a bigger bird and the bird
seemed too gray to be a Spotted Sandpiper. Both times when I observed
the bird flying away - it was very skittish - it had nearly uniform
gray wings, with slightly darker trailing edges on the back of the
wings.

Given what I was able to observe, the best fit I can think of is a
Wandering Tattler. The last time I saw the bird, it was heading north
across Commencement Bay toward the opposite shoreline near Browns Point.

On a more mundane note, I also heard my first Cedar Waxwings of the
season - a bird I missed on my birdathon walk through Point Defiance
Park last weekend. The waxwings were calling from trees along 30th
Street on my run in the hill.

Happy birding!

Rob McNair-Huff
Tacoma, Wash.
rob at whiterabbits.com