Hello, tweets.

Giff Beaton (of Georgia birding, dragonflying, etc.) and I went out to the coat on Friday (6 May 2011), the only day he had available on a brief visit. It rained the entire day, pretty much dampening our plans (we are both committed shorebird photographers). Not being able to carry cameras out in the rain, we tried to bird/photograph from the car, and the only places we were able to do that were at the edge of the Ocean Shores golf course and the nearby ocean beach. He was tickled to get great photos of our Pacific coast Short-billed Dowitchers.

At the golf course at high tide there were many hundreds, probably a few thousand Short-billed Dowitchers and Dunlins, much smaller numbers (few hundred) of Western Sandpipers, a few dozen Semipalmated Plovers, and just a few Marbled Godwits and Black-bellied Plovers. On the ocean beach there were thousands of Western Sandpipers, hundreds of Dunlins and Sanderlings and Semi Plovers, and a few godwits.

To me, the most interesting sighting was 60 gorgeous Ruddy Turnstones at the oyster farm at Bay City, where the Elk River meets South Bay. I think that's the most I have ever seen in a day in Washington. There were another dozen at Tokeland a bit later.
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Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net