Hey all,

Carol Schultz had asked about where exactly to view the shorebirds down in Auburn - It is the second pullout. For those not familiar with the area, M Street in Auburn is a little dead-ender that runs N/S parallel to 167. If you take the 15th street exit off of 167 and head towards Emerald Downs, M Street is the first left - I missed it the first time down.

The first pullout is next to a large field which is really muddy most of the time. Not usually a good idea without boots, a lot of fun with boots. On the far end of that field, there is usually a bit of water and mud that can have shorebirds, but does not right now.

>From the second pullout, you can walk along what vaguely looks like vehicle tracks and the big pond is on the left. I would warn people of problems with cheat grass here, but I think all of the little seeds may be in my socks at this moment.

Continuing up M Street, there is still some good habitat in wetter weather - with some ponds that have ducks and sloughs where I've had American Bittern.

I have still not explored this area from the Interurban trail, and only recently realized that this was another way to poke around in there. I think this is where the Black-necked Stilt was seen a month ago. Still unsure on where the entrance is for this, but I'm sure playing around a little on Mapquest would get me there. Worth noting at any rate for people exploring this as a new area, that it's not all that easy to take any old entrance and just walk to the part you're trying to get to.

New dowitchers in - both Long-billed, as I'm guessing the ones I saw earlier were. Got some great feedback on field marks from other Tweets and am buying into the idea that Short-billed will be a tough one to find around here, and hard to ID confidently. Saw some Spotted Sandpipers that look suspiciously similar to the Solitary I thought I saw the other day... Hmmmm.... and was able to relocate a couple of Western Sandpipers among the many Leasts out there.

-Happy Birding
Tim Brennan

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