Hi Tweets,
Seventeen of from Tacoma spent the weekend at Nisqually, Ocean Shores,
Tokeland and Westport over the weekend. We recorded 24 species of shore-
birds, with no great surprises. On Sunday at about 1:30pm, just after high
tide we walked the groin at the Westport marina. Toward the outer edge of
the groin we noticed a small alcid having trouble diving. The bird was dark to
and including the eye with a black bill and with the black before the eye interrupted
by a white v. We ruled out ancient and marbled and were able to rule out Craveri's
later in the pictures, by the white underwing coverts. It managed
to swim-dive around the eastern edge of the groin into the channel after
about 10 minutes. Nice way to get a life bird, Xantus's (scrippsi) Murrelet.


1 American Golden Plover
7 Pacific Golden Plover, all at game range]
24 Snowy Plovers, Midway
15 Long-billed Curlews, Tokeland
2 Bar-tailed Godwits, Tokeland
1 Ruddy Turnstone, Bottle Beach
8 Red Knots, Bottle Beach
2 Pectoral Sandpipers, 1 Hoquiam SP, 1 Ocean Shores SP
1 Thayer's Gull, Westport
1 apparent aleutian Cackling Goose, Ocean Shores golf course.

Ken Brown
kennethwbrown at hotmail.com
Port Orchard