Hello All,
I spent the better part of Saturday and Sunday looking for shorebirds in W. Washington and had a great time. I found 18 species and was able to identify many adults molting out of breeding plumage and many birds in juvenile plumage.

I started on Sat morning at the ponds along Eide Rd West of Stanwood. There I found Killdeer, Least Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs and Long Billed Dowitcher.

I then drove N. on Pioneer Hwy towards Conway and pulled off at the new Nature Conservancy impoundment. The water is evaporating rapidly here and I counted 30 Killdeer on the mud-no other species, however.

I drove around Fir Island checking various small ponds waiting for the tide to come in and got to the Skagit WMA at about 12:30. Gary Bletsch arrived at the same time so we hiked out to the ponds together and found Stilt Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs and Long Billed Dowitcher.

Today I headed for the coast arriving at Bottle beach at 8:30. High tide was at 10 but it wasn't high enough to cover all of the flats so there was not the usual concentration of birds. I walked out to the tide line and had nice views of Black Bellied Plover, Greater Yellowlegs, Western and Least Sandpipers and Short Billed Dowitchers.

I then headed for Midway Beach in Pacific Co. I spent about two hours around the ponds at the end of the road and was well rewarded. As I waded in there were three Wilson's Snipe and two Snowy Plovers on the sand at the other side of the water. There were many Western and Least Sandpipers a few Killdeer and Semipalmated Sandpipers and 15 Red Necked Phalarope-two of which were adults. The best bird, though, was a Pacific Golden Plover. It was an adult molting out of breeding plumage-it had some black feathers left on its breast. I was able to study it over the course of an hour and listen to its flight call several times when it flushed. A very handsome bird.

I ended at the Tokeland Marina and found 22 Marbled Godwits and 1 Willet on the breakwater and 2 Whimbrel on the South side of the road to the fishing pier.
Cheers
Steve Giles
giles.steve at hotmail.com