Yesterday I was in the Grays Harbor area and birded from Hoquiam to
Tokeland stopping at several locations along the way, coming up with a
total of 77 species. The first stop was the at the Hoquiam Sewage
Ponds & Bowerman Basin sights in Hoquiam. Among the willows along
Paulson Road and across from the Sewage Ponds I had the following
warblers - YELLOW, YELLOW-RUMPED (MYRTLE & AUDUBON), WILSON'S, and
ORANGE-CROWNED along with COMMON YELLOWTHROAT. There was also an
OSPREY hanging out in the area and a few VAUX'S SWIFTS flying about.
At Bowerman Basin I observed a few sandpipers even though the tide was
quite low, including 5 RED KNOT, and 2 BLACK TURNSTONES. This seemed
like an odd spot to see the turnstones with regards to both location
and timing.
My next stop was Bottle Beach State Park at about 2 hours before
high tide and RED KNOTS were quite numerous, no problem at all
locating these birds. Also of note at this sight were lots of
SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, BRANT, a few RUDDY TURNSTONES, SEMI-PALMATED
PLOVERS, GREATER YELLOWLEGS, and a single WHIMBREL.
The Westport Marina & Jetty provided great looks at a WANDERING
TATTLER, and there was also a couple of RUDDY TURNSTONES, many BROWN
PELICANS and the GLAUCOUS GULL at this location. Next I was off to
Tokeland to check out the Marina and nearby vicinity which along with
the MARBLED GODWITS had 2 WILLETS (seems late for them), many
WHIMBREL, a couple GREATER YELLOWLEGS, SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, BRANT,
BONATPARTE GULLS, RUDDY TURNSTONE, and a GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW.
Stopping briefly at Midway Beach there were a couple of HORNED
LARKS. The roadway to the beach beyond the parking area is currently
blocked off due to standing water. Since I wanted to do a little
scoping over the open ocean waters I pulled into the Grayland Beach
State Park access road. Here I just enjoyed looking at the different
colorations of plumage on the SANDERLINGS and watching the SOOTY
SHEARWATERS (quite close to shore) gliding over the waves.
My last quick stop of the day was at Johns River Wildlife area
where along with a few smaller sandpipers that I had seen at several
of the other spots earlier there was also a pair of BLUE-WINGED TEAL
and several WOOD DUCKS.

Cheers and Good Birding;

Michael Fleming
Ballard, Washington
michaelfleming01 AT gmail.com