Hi all,

No Mountain Plover for me today (01/22/2011) either. Starting at 7:30 AM, I walked from 2nd Avenue in Ocean City, down to the "four house spot" where the plover was last reported, back up to Copalis Spit, and then back to 2nd Avenue, arriving at 1:30 PM. I think I covered about 9 miles, and the only place I saw any plovers of any kind was Copalis Spit, where there were 14 Semipalmated Plovers.

On the way home, I stopped by Nisqually NWR to look for the possible Old World Great Egret. I saw no egrets until I arrived at the new boardwalk (which isn't open, FYI). Just then, a Great Egret flew past me, only about 100 feet away. Notice how I said "a" Great Egret and not "the" Great Egret? As it flew by, it's legs were clearly all black, or at best very dark gray. It landed nearby, allowing me to confirm the leg color. I would take a look at it every now and then to see if the leg color had changed, and the egret helped out by moving further away and hiding it's legs in the vegetation, but even so, they stayed all dark, so not the egret I was hoping to see.

John Puschock
Wedgwood, Seattle
g_g_allin at hotmail.com
http://www.zbirdtours.com