Hey Tweeterland,

After dipping on the first Bar-tailed Godwit, as well as the Hudsonian, I was a little reluctant to chase the one found on friday by Khanh Tran, especially after the inviting weather forcast. But, duh, I went anyway. I was hoping the weather might hold this bird a little longer than the others. Also, I rationalized it might stay longer because it was in the company of other Godwits, unlike the previous birds. I headed straight for Tokeland, arriving about 11 AM, about 4 hours before high tide. About 50 Marbled Godwits were feeding in the mud flats behind the harbormaster's house, but no Bar-tailed. I then went to Westport to get some lunch and see if I could find the the Glaucous Gull. I did both . The gull was on the roof of one of the fishery buildings between piers 11 and 15. I also found 4 huge Northern Sea Lions and 1 California Sea Lion hauled out onto Pier 21. I have seen them swimming around Westport harbor, but never out in the open and up close like that. I returned to Tokeland around 2:30, just before high tide. The Marbled Godwit population had grown to about 300, all stuffed together on the dilapitated dock inside the harbor. There were a couple of lighter colored ones, but still Marbleds nevertheless. There were another 250 on the breakwater out in the harbor. These were harder to check, but as far as I could tell, there was no Bar-tailed.

I then went to Bottle beach to see if I could still catch anything there. Just east of the intersection with Montesano Street (the road that goes into Westport) in the large flooded fields on the north side of route 105, I found 3 Great Egrets fishing for anchovy-sized fish. I arrived at Bottle Beach about a half hour past high tide. It was pretty empty. 4 Black-bellied Plovers on 4 little logs and a mixed flock of about a dozen peeps and Semi-palmated plovers. The most interesting bird was a female Pheasant and a couple of large youngsters on the edge of the path leading out to the beach.

Next was a quick stop at Midway Beach. The gate is still locked and the Snowy Plover signs are still up, despite the fact that they say the area is closed until August 31. At first, not much except a few Savannah Sparrows and a Harrier making a weak dive at some far off peeps. Tired of getting soaked and watching the rain whip by in a horizontal fashion, I headed back towards the gate. There were 3 Black Turnstones (and nary a stone) at the larger (south) pond. The much smaller (north) pond had a small mixed flock of Least and Western Sandpipers, Semi-palmated Plovers and a Short-billed Dowitcher.

I figured I was only a few miles away, so I decided to try Tokeland one more time. I arrived at 5:20. The same two groups of Marbled Godwits were pretty much as I had left them two hours earlier. I checked the jetty that goes out to the crabbing dock. On the south side (outside the harbor) it had it's own group of about 100 Godwits. Part of the problem was that I was looking for a smaller, grayish non-breeding adult. This bird has no gray that I could see, and is only slightly (1-2 inches) smaller. The first thing I noticed different was the pale supercilliary stripe. The Marbleds have a light area in front of the eye, but the Bar-tailed has a line running almost to the back of the head. Next I noticed the body color. It is lighter, especially towards the vent and belly. The breast is more of a buff color, whereas the Marbleds (even the lighter ones) have a rufous or even cinnamon color. The mantle (the most worn part of the plummage) and scapulars had buff checkering, while the Marbleds had an evenly mottled look to them. In addition to being only slightly smaller, I noticed the head seemed to be proportionately smaller than the nearby Marbleds. About 15 minutes later the flock took off and I was able to see the clearly lighter tail and rump, even in squall-like conditions. On shore, only the very edge of barring on the tail was visible, and in flight, the barring was too fine to see in the rain. I was not able to see the underwings. The last thing I noticed was in an out-of-focus shot that I was able to snap when they took off. The feet barely stick out past the tail, whereas in the nearby Marbleds, the feet stick out several inches farther. Hope it stays a bit longer.

Jeff Cohen

Gig Harbor

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