Tweeters is awesome - received three ID responses
to my post within minutes. Get a life
everyone...oh wait that includes me. Seriously
thank you to you know who you are. The consensus
is that the Grebe is indeed a CLARK'S and the
shorebird is a WILSON'S SNIPE. The reason for my
wavering as I explained to those who responded
offline was two fold. For the Grebe, I have not
seen a Clark's before and had no expectation of
doing so on this the YELLOW BILLED LOON trip. My
sense of the Clark's in addition to the bright
yellow orange bill which was clear in my bird was
that the eye was completely surrounded by white
and this is not quite the case in the bird I
found. I wondered if maybe it was a hybrid - less
white above than Clark's but far more than
Western. The shorebird was another story. It was
originally unnoticed in a feeding group of LEAST
SANDPIPERS and DOWITCHERS in the mud at the Ilwaco
marina. Then the 5 dowitchers took off and this
bird remained with the Leasts. Sure looked like a
Snipe to me but just similar enough to the
Dowitchers that I wondered.

OK - the rest of the trip: unbelievably beautiful
weather. I left Seattle at 0 Dark Hundred and was
in Ilwaco by 7:30. There was NO traffic (as in I
passed not a single car and certainly drove fast
enough that I would have if one was there) on the
road once I left Highway 12. The sky was
brilliantly clear except in numerous places with
varying degrees of fog. A full moon including
often shining brightly through the fog -
other-worldly and beautiful. Low temperature was
26 degrees and the high later in the afternoon was
64!!!

Birds included the CLARK'S GREBE, two OSPREYS and
female HOODED MERGANSERS at Black's Lake, the
LEAST SANDPIPERS, DOWITCHERS, WILSON'S SNIPE,
YELLOW BILLED, COMMON (in every plumage) and
RED-THROATED LOONS, WESTERN GREBE, RED BREASTED
MERGANSERS, SCAUP, BUFFLEHEADS, CANVASBACKS,
PINTAILS, CASPIAN TERNS, SURF SCOTERS and DOUBLE
CRESTED CORMORANTS at or near the Ilwaco Marina,
FOY (for me) TURKEY VULTURES (in many places),
numerous BALD EAGLES, more OSPREYS, RED TAILED
HAWKS, WHITE WINGED SCOTERS, hundreds of BRANT,
CANADIAN GEESE, CALIFORNIA, HERRING, RING BILLED,
GLAUCOUS WINGED GULLS, BROWN PELICANS (at
Westport), all three CORMORANTS, 35 VARIED
THRUSHES (against only two ROBINS) at LEADBETTER
POINT where there were also both MARSH and PACIFIC
WRENS and FOX and SONG SPARROWS and I believe I
heard a SWAINSON"S THRUSH (FOY).

There were NO birds at Bottle Beach - large
disappointment - tide or date was wrong I guess.

So some great birds but it was also just the kind
of day filled with good people feeling good about
being out. I had great conversations with at
least a dozen people who came up to me when they
saw me with scope, camera or bins and they all had
stories to share or were interested in what I was
doing - I attribute it to the sunshine and "Spring
is in the air..."