Tweets,

The thousand and more Brant staging in Dungeness Bay reported recently by Dennis Paulson and Bob Boekelheide were still present on Tuesday afternoon, rising and settling in large flocks before feeding on the low tide's mudflats along with large flocks of Black-bellied Plovers and other sandpipers made unidentifiable by the war afternoon's heat waves. Several large groups of Horned Grebes -- most in breeding plumage, we're also present in the bay or outside of Dungeness Spit.

Other birds of note found during three days of birding on the North Olympic Peninsula included many Pacific Loons in breeding plumage, a surprisingly large number of Red-throated Loons off the mouth of the Elwha River, a large parcel of Black Oystercatchers at the same location, and first-of-the-year (for me) Tree, Violet-green, and Barn Swallows at the Crescent Beach Road bridge in the Salt Creek Recreation Area. Savannah Sparrows were singing in many fields in the Upper North Olympic Peninsula, joining a chorus of White-crowned and Song Sparrows. A mystery raptor with a brilliant white breast, dark head and back and no discernable belly band seen in the tree line behind Three Crabs Restaurant was probably a pale Red-tailed Hawk, but doubts persist on this ID. Solitary Caspian Terns were present at the Elwha and Dungeness Bay, and Rhinoceros Auklets were seen at Diamond Point, the mouth of the Elwha and Dungeness Bay.

Jim Owens
Mercer Island