Hi All,

George Gerdts and I birded Tokeland and vicinity on Saturday. We started
the morning off at high tide at the marina in Tokeland hoping to check
out the godwit flock. We did not find the godwits at all on Saturday but
we had a few highlights in the process.

TRUMPETER SWAN - 12 at the mouth of the North R. east of Tokeland. Looks
as though Ken and Tom had some there on Friday also.

PRAIRIE FALCON - imm. landed on the top a power pole across from the
Tokeland Library at the start of Shoalwater Bay Gym road. It stayed long
enough for me to snap off a few photos. before flying back east into
more appropriate looking habitat. That would be the first pasture land
just east of the casino that holds the flock of Dusky Canada Geese. This
possibly may be a first for Pacific County???

SNOWY PLOVER - 5 found while driving the beach near Midway Beach. I'm
glad they were in the sand and not in the snow. We would have had a hard
time finding them.

LONG-BILLED CURLEW - 10 on the mud flats northeast of the marina at
mid-day when the tide dropped.

GLAUCOUS GULL - The "resident" Westport 3rd cycle Glaucous Gull is
really ghostly and awesome looking these days.

BARN SWALLOW - one near the Raymond Airport struggling to fly due to
some ice or snow waiting down its tail feathers. I am really hoping
birders are keeping track of the numbers and locations of Barn Swallows
over the last few months. This is a real interesting winter phenomenon.
And notice I said winter. They are in an interesting state of molt and
not believed to be early migrants.

In the mid-afternoon George made the trek back to Bainbridge Island and
I continued on to bird Potter's Marsh and Bay Center before spending the
night in Long Beach. One hybrid Green-winged Teal x Common Teal and a
sizable flock of Greater White-fronted Geese (125 +) were interesting at
Potter's Marsh. And 6 WESTERN BLUEBIRDS at the far west end of the Bay
Center Loop Road (residence w/ numbers 161 and several carved wooden
figures) were nice even though the weather was starting to deteriorate.

The weather today pretty much made birding quite difficult but I finally
did find that Marbled Godwit flock. It was at Bay Center in the early
afternoon. Hmmm, I wonder where there roosting at high tides. My biggest
highlight today was actually a mammal. I watched and photographed a
Bobcat walking along the driftwood on the shores of the Naselle River -
about a mile west of where 101 and 4 meet.

It was amazing the number of Varied Thrushes I encountered along the
sides of roads the past two days. I also had a fair number of Hermit
Thrushes.

Cheers and good birding,

Brad Waggoner
Bainbridge Island
mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com