Tweeters,

It was a beautiful fall day, so I headed to Ocean Shores to see what might
be around. I was scrutinizing a flock of 12 Golden Plovers (1 ad. Pacific,
7 juv. Pacific, and 4 American) on the outer beach behind the Game Range
when Paul Hicks joined me. There was a nice assortment of other shorebirds
in the area, too: Killdeer, Black-bellied Plovers, Semi-palmated Plovers,
Greater Yellowlegs, Least, Western, and Pectoral Sandpipers, juv.
Short-billed Dowitchers, Whimbrel, Dunlin, and a few Red-necked Phalaropes. Black
Turnstones and Long-billed Dowitchers at the Sewage plant, and a Wandering
Tattler (Paul's sighting) on the Pt. Brown Jetty rounded out the Shorebird
list for the day. There were also several large flocks of White-fronted
Geese, Am. Pipits, and several Lapland Longspurs on the Game Range.

The tide was high at 2:30 PM, so we headed over to the sewage ponds,
arriving at about 3:00 PM. There were 30+ Pectoral Sandpipers in the first and
third ponds. Paul went back to his car to get a bite to eat, when he saw 2
more shorebirds flew in. He called me over, and sure enough, one of them
was a juv. Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, a lifer for Paul. The Sh.-tailed was
still present in the third pond when we had to leave at 4:30 PM because the
facility was closing. The third pond has quite a bit of vegetation in it,
so the shorebirds can hide from view at times. I will post some photos on
my SmugMug site tomorrow. Call me if you need more details.

George Gerdts
206-842-8138
Bainbridge Island, WA