Hi Tweeters,

I did a 3/4 day trip to the coast yesterday, my first chance out there. There was some rain and some wind but the weather was mostly pleasant, especially the moderate temperature. About 15 species of shorebird total.

First stop Brady Loop had some really great shorebirds and I heard my first of year Western Tanager but didn't get to see one, it was raining at that moment. I perdik ted I would see one but I was wrong, did get to see one this morning though. Shorebirds were Killdeer, Least and Western Sandpiper, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover, Snipe, Greater Yellowlegs, Semi-palmated Plover and one single Red-necked Phalarope.

I went to the coast via South Bend because I thought it might be productive, it wasn't except for some duck species and my only Western Grebe of the day. Tokeland was fun. Many lawn shorebirds. On the way in about 8 Whimbrel were on the Tokeland Hotel lawn. They ducked down into the lawn when they noticed I was looking at them, they were much braver on my out because they had a lot of company. When I drove by on the way out there was about 60 large shorebirds on the lawn, more Whimbrel, Marbled Godwit and Short-billed Dowitchers. Another group of about 20 Short-billed Dowitchers were on the lawn at the Willapa RV Park and I got to see once catch and eat an earthworm. I also added Willet and a beautiful Ruddy Turnstone up close at Tokeland.

It was some moderate rain and wind at North Cove but saw lots of gulls and terns including Mew Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Western Gull and Bonaparte's Gull. Got to see a Caspian Tern feed its mate a wriggly fish here.

Speed birded Westport, did see my only Spotted Sandpiper here and 4 Brown Pelicans.

Finale Bottle Beach. Nothing new shorebirdwise but the numbers were interesting. Definitely a push of Short-billed Dowitchers, hundreds of them. Western Sandpipers many hundreds (maybe 2,000+), Dunlin several hundred, Black-bellied Plover about 50, about 40-50 Semi-palmated Plover, a few Least Sandpipers, about 5 Greater Yellowlegs, and a single Ruddy Turnstone. Tried as hard as I could to find a Red Knot or a different kind of plover but no success.

Quick stop at John's River found my first of year Wilson's Warbler finally.

Ahhhhh, migration.....

Kathy
Roosting in Kent, near Lake Meridian
(chukarbird at yahoo dot com)
Any driving directions contained within this message are given as a courtesy, beware, author is directionally challenged and will not vouch for them.