Birders,



I made a brief trip to Blaine, WA this afternoon to check my mailbox, and
couldn't help doing some birding as well. On the north side of Marine Drive,
near the first viewing kiosk, was a nice male EURASIAN GREEN-WINGED TEAL.
There were only 10 American Green-winged Teal there, so I was lucky to see
this rarity.



I had hoped to see some shorebirds there as well (the tide was fairly
high), but all I could find was one GREATER YELLOWLEGS and 2 SHORT-BILLED
DOWITCHERS-no peeps. However, in a few minutes 4 WHIMBREL flew in and joined
the others. There were about 85 CASPIAN TERNS near the water's edge, along
with many MEW and GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS.



Next, I checked the mudflats in Drayton Harbour south of the marina, looking
from an overlook along Peace Portal Way. Aha! There were the WHIMBRELS- a
flock of at least 150 of them. (This is one of their favorite spots.) The
flock took off for undetermined reasons, but soon landed again in the same
place.



I did a quick run along Drayton Harbor Road on the south side of the harbor.
Not much there, despite a favourable tide, except for 8 more WHIMBRELS at
the mouth of California Creek.



A quick check of the shoreline in Birch Bay State Park produced about 90
BRANT (most of them in one flock), but nothing else unusual.





Good luck and good birding,



Wayne C. Weber

Delta, BC

contopus at telus.net