Hi Tweeters,



I birded portions of Ocean Shores today with Jim Pruske.? We arrived at the Brown Point Jetty around 8:30.? No Kittiwakes or shore birds.? We then went to look for the female KING EIDER??where it had been reported lately, in the small bay east of the Sewage Treatment Ponds.? Our first bird there was a PEREGRINE FALCON? flying near the tower.? In the pond prior to the coast we found a small flock of DUNLIN, LEAST SANDPIPER, AND BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER.? The bay was full of SCOTERS, mostly SURF, but I counted 18 BLACK SCOTERS, which was the most that I have seen at this location (half male, half female) and just 2 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS.? We quickly found the female KING EIDER just beyond a raft of Surf Scoters, but well within the break water this time.? We also spotted HARLEQUIN DUCK, WESTERN GREBE, COMMON LOON, at least 2 dozen BROWN PELICANS, and 1 RING-NECKED PHEASANT on the walk in.



We next went to Damon Point.? The tide was out, exposing the boulders to the south (the right) of the Damon Point spit.? There was a flock of BLACK TURNSTONES scattered on several of the rocks.? On closer inspection, we counted 6 ROCK SANDPIPERS mixed in with them.? Jim managed to get one photo of 4 of them together.? When we returned a couple of hours later, the flock was gone (we returned to Brown Point Jetty but they were not there either).? We spent a couple of hours bushwhacking on Damon Point.? Once you get beyond the initial portion that gets covered during high tide, it is still well vegetated.? We were hoping to come across some lapwings or horned larks, but no luck.? We did find 3 WESTERN MEADOWLARKS and were very surprised when we found a GREAT HORNED OWL out there roosting on a shore pine.? I also found a colony of Lycopodium (club moss) that Jim proceeded to photograph for more than a half hour.? As I dragged him away by his feet, he was still taking pictures.



Not much else of note.? The tide was way out at Bill's Spit.? The rain started coming down around noon and really started pouring soon after.? We stopped at a couple of state parks farther north along the coast, seeking the illusive Kittiwakes, but without finding any.



Bood birding,



Lonnie Somer

Olympia, WA

wheelermombi at comcast.net