Kristin Stewart and I headed out to Hoquiam late this morning, leaving Olympia around 10:30. When we arrived at the STP surprisingly only 4 other birders were there. Bob Norton and Judy M. had seen 2 palm warblers, but nothing else. We saw only 1 warbler on the fence on the left side of Paulsen just before the "T" intersection. At 1:30 we went and had lunch at Lana's at the airport. Around 2:25 we were back on Paulsen and Judy informed us that the clay-colored sparrow had been seen. We split up for a search and Judy relocated it on the left side of Paulson, just on the other side of the fence just after the open terrain starts. Two brush piles were located just before the area where the sparrow was located. After looking for and not finding the chestnut-collared longspur, we headed to the other side of the pond for a better look at the ducks. We almost immediately noticed 5 birders in a semi-circle with binocs raised. We turned around and headed back to find that Judy had found the longspur, which was a lifer for her, and was located between the road and the 3-strand fence. It walked under the fence and continued walking towards Paulsen. It flew away and landed towards the the bend in the road. We departed around 4:15. A good day with just a few sprinkles and some sun.

We also saw Lincoln's, golden-crowned, fox, and song sparrows, Bewick's wren, GBH, black-capped chickadee, ruby-crowned kinglet, Cooper's hawk, 3 bald eagles, red-tailed hawk, harrier, A. goldfinches, red-headed and canvasback ducks, gadwalls, buffleheads, coots, hooded merganser, various gulls, and 2 late season dragonflies.

Valerie Elliott
Olympia, WA.