Hello Tweets,



On 5/9/09, I spent a most enjoyable day at Ocean Shores. Great birds and decent weather - what more could you ask for. Including a stop at the Hoquiam sewage treatment plant on the way to the coast on the evening of 5/8/09, I built a fine 105 species trip list.



Good birds for the trip included:


six gull species (good close views of all, including 2 late winter plumage Bonaparte's at Bill's Spit),
six warbler species (including 12 orange-crowned at 10-20 feet at the Hoquiam sewage plant; 2 Townsend's at the O.S. high school pond),
a good variety of birds of prey, including a sharp-shinned hawk hunting white crowned sparrows and savannah sparrows near the jetty,
a nice list of ducks and geese (including six late common goldeneyes around the jetty, and two 100+ flocks of cackling geese dashing, forming and re-forming their flocks in full cackle over Damon Point),
1000's of shorebirds of 14 species (mostly western sandpipers, but also large numbers of semipalmated plovers and beautiful breeding plumage dunlin, 2 lesser yellowlegs at the Hoquiam site, 100+ black-bellied plovers at high tide on Bill's Spit, 75 bright ruddy short billed dowitchers on Bill's Spit with 2 blood red (in the bright sun) vivid red knots, a greater yellowlegs between the marina and Damon Point, 2 wandering tattlers on the north jetty, and three colorful ruddy turnstones on Damon Point and Bill's Spit),
several alcids, all three loons, some sea ducks, and a few shearwaters off the north jetty
100's of common terns flying like swallows in a frenzied diving feeding flock at the tip of the jetty,
3 band tailed pigeons at the Interpretive Center, and
2 singing olive sided flycatchers up close at Perkins Lake (Cabana Pool trail) and the high school pond.


Of special interest was a necking, courting, cooing pair of eurasian collared doves in the game range just east of the O.S. sewage treatment plant. I watched them for around five minutes and they then took off to the north. This is the first pair of collared doves I have seen in Washington State. Have they bred in the state? I've only heard of singles up to now.



Frank Brown

Seattle, WA