Subject: [Tweeters] Gray's Harbor birding 10/5
Date: Oct 6 08:53:38 2012
From: Jeffrey Bryant - jbryant_68 at yahoo.com


The morning got off to an auspicious start when I randomly chose the right starting point for the Wilson's Plover at Grayland Beach State Park.? The bird was huddled down in the wrack with no fewer than 20 Snowy Plovers and a pair of Sanderlings just south of beach access trail #3 at? 9:30.? A kind thank you to the kite flyers who heeded my pleas to move their fun a bit downbeach so others might enjoy the bird!
Shorebird numbers were low elsewhere, with a truly miserable showing at incoming tide at Bottle Beach, just Sanderlings at Midway Beach, 8 Willets and maybe four times that many godwits (all Marbled) at Tokeland, and only a few Killdeers, Leasts and 3 Pectoral Sandpipers at Hoquiam ponds.
Oyhut Game Range was considerably better.? Though the "pond" at the Tonquin access is all but gone, there were 10 Pectoral Sandp;ipers, a few dozen Leasts (mostly juveniles) a pair of juvy Black-bellied Plover?and a few Killdeer.? Also grazing nearby were thirty Greater White-fronted Geese and about fifty cacklers.? Most exciting, however, was a trio of Lapland Longspurs, my first of the season, rattling among the hordes of Savannah Sparrows and pipits between the pond and the beach.
?
Jeff bryant
Seattle
jbryant_68 AT yahoo