Yeah, today's warm rain reminded me of Florida; but without their sub-tropical avifauna.

Phil Hotlen
Bellingham, WA


----- Original Message -----
From: "jeff gibson" <gibsondesign at msn.com>
To: tweeters at washington.edu
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2012 8:45:01 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] Warm Rain on Whimbrels


I guess my current sideline has become Agent for Everett Whimbrels. Not because I'm a great birder or anything, it's just that Whimbrels have come to my hood and it's easy to report on them, even for a slacker like me. I only live minutes away and I think Whimbrels are cool birds!

This morning, after checking out the tide chart, I was inspired to get up at 5 am and zip down to the Everett waterfront mudflats to do a Whimbrel check. Didn't see any, even though the tide was just about right. Raining but warm.

Luckily my Saturday morning job of cleaning beer slobber, and whatever, off of the Anchor Pub floor is just two minutes down the road from Whimbrel Central. I swept and mopped till 6am and went back. Tide really good then, but no Whimbrel. Finally finishing my chores just after 7am I went back again - the tide out quite a ways by then. On my third careful binoc scan of the mudflats I finally saw 4 Whimbrels out there a ways. They can be a bit tricky to spot amongst all the Gulls in the distance, but the Gulls waddle at a slow steady pace, and the Whimbrels are more active, tending to do short rushes up to something before doinking it out of the mud. Again these birds were seen from the North pullout on West Marine View Drive. Out mostly along the row of piling's just south of the turnout.

An added benefit of getting up at 5 was hearing a better dawn chorus than I'm used to at home, even though home is only about 45 seconds away as the Osprey flies. In the greenbelt that covers the waterfront bluffs, were many singing birds: many Sparrows, Robins, Wrens etc. Even heard a Pewee- a bird I've never heard in eleven years at my house. I can hear the distant murmur of this chorus from my house, but today I realized the reason I can't hear it so well; the bluffs are like choir stands facing toward the water, where I was this morning. I could hear great, barring traffic and train noise!

As to Whimbels, the low tide today is at 9:49 and the high is 5:40. Three hours before the high might be good today for Whimbrel closer to shore. The moon is fickle and the tide range yesterday was 9.5ft. Today it's 10.7ft - meaning the water level is changing faster today.

Jeff Gibson
Everett Wa



_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters