Subject: [Tweeters] A Day At The Beach: Tokeland to Westport;
Date: Sep 18 18:53:25 2010
From: wheelermombi at comcast.net - wheelermombi at comcast.net




HI Tweeters,



I spent the day birding the Tokeland to Westport region.? The weather was quite mild and calm, with the rain holding off until a little after 2:00.? Here are some of the highlights in chronological order:



Midway Beach:? If you haven't been here for a while, the road is still closed just passed the bathroom.? Because of the recent rain, the section where the road meets the sand is flooded, but the water is only ankle deep and easy to cross if you don't mind going barefoot through it.? To the right (north) of the?road as one walks in, perhaps a 1/3 of a mile away, was a pond containing 8 RED-NECKED PHALAROPES, SHORT-BILLED (I think) DOWITCHERS, and WESTERN SANDPIPERS.? A?PEREGRINE FALCON kept the birds on their toes by making a few low passes.? I wandered about for a couple of hours hoping to locate snowy plovers or buff-breasted sandpipers without any luck.? I eventually worked my way to the left (south) side of the road.? Perhaps a 1/4 mile in I flushed a shorebird that had been?hidden by dune grass on?mud covered ground.? It landed nearby and allowed me to eventually approach with 30' or so.? I believe that it was a SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER, although as I have only seen this species once (the one that was south of Kent last year) I'm not exactly an authority on the species.? It was the size of a Pectoral Sandpiper with a similar sized bill, but its breast was buffy, unstreaked, and the coloration did not have a clear boundary at its inferior end.? It did have a few streaks on the sides of its breast.? It had a rich, rufous cap and a thin, continuous white eye ring.? The feathers of its wings and back were a chocolate color with?pale edging.? I need to buy a camera.



Tokeland:? I arrived around high tide and the MARBLED GODWITTS?were split into 3 flocks.? While scoping the largest flock out on the rocks, Khan Tran and two companions arrived.? He almost immediately spotted the BAR-TAILED GODWITT in the midst of the flock even though it had its head tucked under; very impressive.? Several WILLETS were mixed in with 2 of the godwitt flocks.? Lots of COMMON LOONS were about, a couple of which called back and forth to one another several times.



Westport: I scoped the water from the observation deck at the far end of the marina.? Hugh numbers of DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS could be seen.? The only alcids were quite far out.? I was able to ID small numbers of COMMON MURRE, PIGEON GUILLEMOT, and RHINOCEROS AUKLET.? There was also a small pod of HARBOR PORPOISES swimming near them.? There was a first year Rhinoceros Auklet within the marina area that was frantically paddling about with the aid of its wings.? It was unable to fly and appeared to be searching for a way out to open water.? It came as close as 10' from where I was standing, completely ignoring me.? Very depressing.



Although the tide was already going out when I arrived at Bottle Beach and the peeps were distant silhouettes, a nice consolation was watching RED-WING BLACKBIRDS flycatching above the reeds in the marsh.? There were still a few COMMON YELLOWTHROATS about.? Out on the distant sand spits were hundreds more DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS.



On an unrelated note, I'm not sure if this has been posted previously, but for you butterfly enthusiasts, a book by Robert Michael Pyle was recently published titled "Mariposa Road (not to be confused with "Kingbird Highway"): The First Butterfly Big Year".



Good birding and butterflying,



Lonnie Somer

Olympia

wheelermombi at comcast.net