Hey Tweets!

Randy Bjorklund and I made our way up to Whatcom County yesterday to do some birding, and made a run for the Wood Sandpiper later in the evening. Randy had seen the sandpiper yesterday, so we made our way to the pond from the West 90 parking lot fairly directly. We waited it out from a little after 7 until almost 8 PM, with no sign of the Wood Sandpiper or any of the Greater Yellowlegs that have been with it. There's a little more water on the field now, and it apparently is deep enough now to have pulled in a Red-necked Phalarope, which twirled around indecisively the whole time we were there. Peeps (at least some Least Sandpipers by call) trickled through during the course of the 45 minutes or so. None during the beginning, then a flock of 8, and by the time we left, a group of 40 or so was circling the pond. Maybe there wasn't enough exposed mud, but I don't recall seeing any of the peeps actually land.

Okay, now on to the beginning! We drove pretty directly to Mt Baker, taking the road up as far as we could (Heather Meadows Visitor Center), and found that all of the trails from there are still pretty well snowed in. We found some decent high altitude birds nonetheless - Clark's Nutcracker, Gray Jay, Mountain Chickadee, Olive-sided Flycatcher and a decent flock of Vaux's Swifts. Our other big stops included the Blaine Marina (good numbers of peeps, including Least and Western Sandpipers, as well as numerous Killdeer and a Semipalmated Plover. Gulls included Ring-billed, California, Glaucous-winged, and a single Bonapartes) and Lummi Flats (more peeps in flight, and a Greater Yellowlegs, as well as a few Northern Harriers).

Happy Birding!
-Tim Brennan
Renton

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