As of this afternoon, at least one sharp-tailed sandpiper remains at the
Thomas/Toysmith/whatever people happen to be calling it this week wetland in
light industrial warehouse-ville in Kent.



Having read on Tweeters that the light is best in the afternoons, I turned
up at 1.40pm and found three birders by the roadside. They were looking at
the head of a sleeping sharp-tailed sandpiper barely visible in the reeds,
where it had been for the last couple of hours, with a few pectorals for
company. A pair of pectorals picked around at the edge of the reeds, and
there were also a few yellowlegs and dowitchers around feeding. An American
pipit was around too. At 2pm, the sharp-tailed stood up, stretched, and
wandered right out into the open on the edge of the mud, where it spent the
next ten minutes preening and bathing, and generally putting on a through
show. It demonstrated all its field marks from every angle, and its rufous
cap glowed in the afternoon sunlight. At 2.10pm, it disappeared back into
the reeds and was completely lost from view.



We tried the U-Haul entrance to get a different view on the reeds, but never
found it again, and only one pectoral was visible at all by that time, so we
gave up, and at 2.30 everyone left.



Since I had to look back through quite a few posts to find directions, I'm
going to repeat them here. The wetland is along Frontage Road, just south of
277th St near Auburn, immediately south of U-Haul. Frontage Road is the
first junction east of the 277th exit from 167, just a hundred yards or so
from the freeway.



Louise Rutter

Kirkland