Hello All,
Ryan Merrill and I birded from Sequim to Neah Bay on Wednesday and Thursday this week. We started at the limited public access to Graysmarsh. There was a Canvasback in the saltwater there, oddly.
At Elwha River Mouth we found an interior/northern Spotted Towhee and a Northern Shrike. At least 95 Sooty Fox Sparrows and two late-ish Turkey Vultures were also observed. We went up to Hurricane Ridge as it got dark. Right around sunset we found a male Sooty Grouse quietly browsing on fir needles along the first part of the Hurricane Hill trail. Driving down we found a Great Horned Owl near the visitor center, and while owling the Hurricane Ridge Road had 3 Northern Saw-whet and 2 Barred Owls.
Thursday morning we started at Cape Flattery. A Pacific storm had the ocean very tumultuous (waves apparently peaked at 17' overnight). The sea was frothy with foam-like mats of Akashiwo sanguinea, a harmful algal bloom which is currently killing thousands of birds on the NW coast. Later in the day, we witnessed dozens of Red-throated Loons, Common Murres, and a few Surf Scoters affected by the slimy foam which eliminates the effectiveness of birds' natural waterproofing. The Red-throated Loons were moving upstream into the Waatch River and sitting on the shoreline all over the place.
We sea-watched for 1.5 hours without seeing anything too unusual. We could scope a Northern Shrike on Tatoosh Island.
At the Waatch River were 140 Red Crossbills, 9 Aleutian, one Taverner's, and one Minima Cackling Goose. At the sewage pond there was a female Blue-winged Teal and another Northern Shrike which flew off with some sort of fairly large vole. There was a Lapland Longspur in the Salicornia near the mouth of the Waatch.
We drove south toward the Shi Shi trailhead and found a late Black-throated Gray Warbler with a nice kinglet/chickadee flock in a willow thicket. Driving back towards Neah Bay we stopped at a wet area which produced a somewhat late Common Yellowthroat, at least 8 Virginia Rails, and an American Coot.
Neah Bay was loaded with waterbirds, including 6 Long-tailed Ducks and a Pied-billed Grebe.
That's All,
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington