After attending the WOS Conference I had a hard time determining
which route to take back to Ballard. In the end I decided to head
over to the coast and made three quick stops; at Tokeland, Midway
Beach, and Bottle Beach. I noticed that the tide was low while
traveling north on Hwy 105 toward Tokeland so decided to make Midway
Beach my first stop. The state parks department was in the process of
removing the Snowy Plover signs for the year since the birds had
finished nesting. I walked the beach and located 12 SNOWY PLOVERS
sitting quietly in the sand amongst kelp and seaweed debris outside of
the nesting area. A small pond along the Midway Beach entry road just
before reaching the beach provided a nice small variety of shorebirds.
A few highlights seen at the three stops included:

SNOWY PLOVER - 12 at Midway Beach
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER - 1 at Midway Beach
BAIRD'S SANDPIPER - 2 at Midway Beach
PECTORAL SANDPIPER - 3 at Midway Beach
AMERICAN PIPIT - Many at Midway Beach
AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER - at Bottle Beach
GREAT EGRET - 1 seen while driving at Bay City (a little west of Bottle Beach)

A few other birds seen included Willet, Marbled Godwit, Long-billed
Dowitcher, Short-billed Dowitcher, Western Sandpiper, Blacker-bellied
Plover, and Sanderling.

Cheers and Good Birding;

Michael Fleming
Ballard, Washington
michaelfleming01 AT gmail.com