Good morning Tweeters,

We have 1 more interesting species to add to the Ocean Shores Game Range list. On Saturday, Barb McDowell, Dave and Sherry Hayden, and myself observed a sub-adult jaeger swooping and doing a wing-flutter type of hover before it landed on the edge of the dune grass and began to snap up insects. It relaxed for a few minutes, allowing Dave and Barb to snap a few photos of it while on the ground before flying off. Dave showed the photos to a few of the more experienced pelagic birders and all agreed that it is a jeager, the general consensus being that it is probably a sub-adult Long-tailed Jaeger, (outside chance that it is a Parasitic) which was our conclusion while we were observing it in the field.

Besides all of the wonderful species being reported from the coast, the most impressive thing for me was the shear number of shorebirds that we saw at the Game Range as the tide was coming in. Just standing there listening to thousands and thousands of them is worth the drive to the coast. We also found large numbers of Semi-palmated Plovers (the most that I've ever sen in one location) and Western Sandpipers at the Quinalt Casino beach, a few hundred yards to the north of the access.

Good birding,

Lonnie Somer
Olympia
wheelermombi at comcast.net