Hello, tweets.

Today Netta Smith and I saw the Red Phalarope at Midway Beach
described by Charlotte Byers and also saw Gregg Thompson's photos of
it. Green with envy. We were at the pond at Midway Beach at midday,
and a female Red Phalarope was still there, but way across at the
other side of the pond. The Red-necked Phalaropes, however, were at
our feet, often passing less than 10 feet away as they swam around
and fed, and we probably took 200 photos of them, absolutely
impossible not to. I haven't looked at the photos yet, but I suspect
there are at least a few good ones. There were at least 20-25 red-
necks on the pond, scattered all along it. There was also a flock of
25 Western Sandpipers and a Semipalmated Plover on the far (western)
side of the pond. But this is public property, and groups of people
with kids and dogs (said without prejudice) kept coming up to the
pond from both sides. One group crossed the pond from east to west
and scared all the phalaropes away, not even noticing them.

We looked out at Bottle Beach in the morning, when the tide was still
fairly low, and saw nary a shorebird, but I heard a Greater
Yellowlegs in the distance, both calling and singing. It is so cool
to hear shorebirds singing as they head north in the spring. The new
state park is somewhat disconcerting to me, because there will now be
a stream of recreating visitors there (we saw 5 carloads while we
were there, all with either dogs or small children, that walked out
to the beach and along it), far outnumbering birders and mostly not
concerned with whether they scare away roosting shorebirds or not. In
fact, I would predict there will be some active scaring away of
shorebirds, unless all the adults practice rigorous child and pet
control. I guess that's progress, and I realize there are far more
nonbirders than birders, but I'm sorry that the end of that road may
not be such a dependable place for shorebird roosting in the future.
I suspect it will affect birders more than birds, which can just move
farther away from that spot. It probably will be best to go there
when high tide is early in the morning, before a lot of other people
show up. I'll admit this is all speculation, but I've been watching
people as long as I have birds.

I'm more disturbed by the obvious planting of tremendous numbers of
trees and shrubs there, which will change it from an open area with a
view out over fields and wetlands eventually to a dense patch of
shrubbery or woodland that you walk through to get to the beach. The
prevailing attitude in nature management, including "restoration,"
always seems to be to plant woody vegetation, with no thought to the
value and relative rarity of the open habitats that will be lost. I
would have had a consultant from the national wildlife refuge system
showing the state park people how to modify the landscape to support
freshwater shorebirds, which are a lot scarcer than Song Sparrows and
Bewick's Wrens (again, no prejudice against these fine little birds).

We also saw a first-year Glaucous Gull at Shoalwater Bay, where one
was reported yesterday, and another at Westport. A roosting flock of
30 Bonaparte's Gulls at Shoalwater Bay comprised mostly immatures;
the adults are already heading for their breeding grounds. There were
also about 20 immature Mew Gulls but not a single adult. There were
more Brown Pelicans roosting on the breakwater at Westport than I
have ever seen there, hundreds and hundreds of them lined up beak to
tail, the great majority adults. But there was very little additional
activity in the harbor, just a few gulls, D-c Cormorants, and
guillemots. We looked out in the ocean for shearwaters wherever we
were but never saw one. There was a flock of 50 or more Marbled
Godwits roosting at a distance in the Tokeland Marina, but we saw no
other shorebirds on the beach at Grayland or in Shoalwater Bay. Birds
were generally uncommon (it is the end of the migration, after all),
and I was really surprised not to see or hear a Caspian Tern. I did
hear a Common Tern while we were at Midway Beach.

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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