Hi Tweets,

Heather and I spent an amazingly non-rainy day on Sunday birding in Pacific
County. The results of the non-stop rain the past 2 weeks were evident all
up and down the coast, with the rivers all running high, water over parts
of the roadways and the "pond" on the road out to Midway beach stretching
for a long, long way.

We started out at the Tokeland Marina at high tide, to marvel at the 600+
MARBLED GODWITS, with a sprinkling of 21 Willets and a few Long-billed
Dowitchers. Searched the flock multiple times for a possible Bar-tailed
Godwit, but no luck.

As we exited the Tokeland peninsula, we stopped at the fields just east of
the casino, which was filled with 100's of CACKLING GEESE, mostly of the
purplish dark brown minima subspecies. The big surprise was 18 TRUMPETER
SWANS, working in the creek running through the fields.

Just west of Raymond at about MP51, we encountered another large group of
Cackling Geese near Carruthers Slough that also had 55 SNOW GEESE, sharing
the field.

The biggest excitement of the day was at Bay Center on Willapa Bay - lots
and lots of shorebirds. We arrived about 2 1/2 hours after high tide
(which was a tad late for ideal viewing), but all of the oyster flats were
just getting exposed and the shorebirds were there in force. My best
estimates on numbers were:

2500+ Dunlin
200+ Black-bellied Plover
7 Semipalmated Plover
60 Least Sandpiper

And where there are lots of shorebirds, there has to be a falcon. Sure
enough, a Peregrine Falcon came swooping through. But the new spectacle
was to watch it then take after a Red-tailed Hawk and not only chase it,
but whack it a good one on the back hard enough to send feather's flying.
A first in our experience.

About 1/2 way down the road to Bay Center are some Oyster business's, we
found a immature male HARLEQUIN DUCK working the pilings and floating barge
- a tough bird to find in Pacific County.

It was a great day to be out birding,

Marcus Roening
GSK Oncology - Hematology
Tacoma, WA
marcus.d.roening at gsk.com
C: (253) 988 8313