Hey Tweets!

Randy Bjorklund and I left early this morning from Federal Way to do some birding in Pacific County. On the way, we made a brief early morning stop at the Hawk's Prairie Settling Ponds and failed to turn up the Black Phoebe (although it has rarely been seen early in the morning, I think). We pushed on until we were in Pacific County, with our first stop coming at South Bend, where we had Horned and Western Grebes, Red Breasted Merganser, Common Goldeneye, Greater and Lesser Scaup, and Belted Kingfisher. Further down the road at Potter Slough we had more waterfowl, including more Cackling and Canada Geese, Northern Shoveler, American Coot, Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Duck and Bufflehead. Between there and Ilwaco, we had an American Kestrel on the way there and back, and there were hundreds of geese in the fields, which included some Greater White-fronted on the way back.

At Ilwaco, I was making my second attempt to see the Yellow-billed Loon at the marina. I had stopped a few weeks back after a family trip to the Oregon Coast - no luck with a short stop. When Randy and I arrived, our very first bird was the Yellow-billed Loon! It was no more than 20 feet from us and spent 15 minutes or so diving, resurfacing in the same area - right in front of us in between stalls at the marina. I can't imagine ever getting to see this species this close for such a long period of time, unless I happen to get one for a pet or something. This was a lifer for me, and Randy easily got the best pictures he's had of this beautiful bird.

Common Loons, Red-necked Grebes, and Buffleheads were most of the rest of the population in the marina. We had hoped for Red-throated and Pacific Loons, but missed both of them today.

Heading out to Cape Disappointment and North Head, we walked the jetty, finding Brandt's Cormorants, a small number of White-winged and Surf Scoters (and a possible Black Scoter flying past the jetty). Western, Glaucous-winged, Mew, Ring-billed, and Herring Gulls were all found on and around the jetty, as well as many Western Grebes (including two apparently injured grebes on the beach). We struck out on rocky shorebirds, but were able to find Sanderlings on and near the jetty, and Least Sandpipers in ponds near Ilwaco. On the way out of the State Park, we stopped at the campground near the entrance gate, and found quite a few birds on and around the lake (Pied-billed Grebe, Hairy Woodpecker, Robin, Varied Thrush, Wilson's Snipe, Marsh Wren, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Spotted Towhee and Black-capped Chickadee), before heading back towards home.

On the way home, we made a sunset stop at Kennedy Creek in Mason County, where it was too dark to pick out many ducks, but the exposed mud had dozens of Black-bellied Plover, and Dunlins, along with a small small number of ducks - Mallard, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye and Norhtern Shoveler.

Great weather all day, and so nice to get to see a new bird so well. :)

-Tim Brennan
Renton