Ryan Shaw and I birded Midway Beach Friday evening where we enjoyed
the amazing spectacle of an estimated 400,000 Sooty Shearwaters and
30,000 gulls along the water's edge. Among the crowd was the Lesser
Black-backed Gull that Mike & MerryLynn Denny found the day before a
few miles to the north. Some photos are online -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rjm284/

At dusk a couple Common Nighthawks joined several Vaux's Swifts over
the ponds west of South Bend at Potter Slough.

On Saturday, 21 Aug, we hiked around Leadbetter Point where we found
the following shorebirds:

Black-bellied Plover - 1200
Snowy Plover - 3
Semipalmated Plover - 20
Greater Yellowlegs - 2
Whimbrel - 1
Ruddy Turnstone - 1
Black Turnstone - 2
Sanderling - 4000
Western Sandpiper - 2500
Least Sandpiper - 250
Dunlin - 5
Short-billed Dowitcher - 50

Good birding,
Ryan Merrill
Kirkland, WA