Hey Tweets -


After a fishing trip to Westport I decided to go by Ocean Shores on the way home to see if the famous female King Eider was really still hanging out in Ocean Shores. Sure enough, at 10:45 on 7-20-10 she was right there on one of the rocks that run from the old pilings at the end of Protection Island Road toward Brown's Point. She spent the entire 45 minutes we were there preening and loafing on a rock. Got excellent looks and some recognizable pictures.

The bird appeared slightly larger than the nearby white-winged scoters. Base color was a slightly rufous brown with obvious patterning on the wings and breast. Feet yellowish drab. Bill black with a slight bump on the upper mandible and pale feathering at the base. Pale axillaries, belly darker than flanks, and the patterning rule out scoter.

This seems to be a good spot in general for swimmers - white winged and surf scoters, a red breasted merganser, a harlequin duck (female or juvenile), a common loon, and what sure looked like a red-throated loon

Another way cool lifer thanks to Tweeters - thanks to everybody who's posted on this bird in the last nine months or so, especially Bob Sundstrom who let us know she was still there last Saturday.

-Roy A Myers, Benton City, WA