I tried to send this in earlier from my phone and
do not think it was successful. Was more timely then.
Four of us had wonderful looks (and photos) of the
Wilson's Plover at Grayland State Park beach. It
was first seen around 12:45 and I last saw it at
around 2:00. It was associating with a group of
very active Snowy Plovers (at least 12 and
probably 15+) and a few Sanderlings. The bird was
found about midway between the ocean and the dunes
in amongst the tire tracks in somewhat darker
sand. We entered at trail 3 from the Park and
went down past trail 5 without success and then on
returning found the bird closer to 3. It moved
fairly far north (not to the entry road) before
again turning south. The bird is easily
distinguished from the Snowies by the very much
heavier, longer and darker bill among other more
subtle features.

On the way down to Grayland I earlier stopped at
Nisqually NWR where I did not find the Northern
Saw Whet Owl and where it was cold (at 8:00 a.m.)
and to me less birdy than usual. The highlight
was a Peale's Peregrine Falcon.

Before getting to Grayland, I also stopped at
Bottle Beach. The tide was receding and I was
afraid that I would miss the birds entirely but
there were very good numbers there - many almost
straight out from the trailhead/blind and many
more to the North (or is it East - but in any even
back towards Aberdeen). There were hundreds of
peeps - mostly Western but also some Dunlin and
possibly some Least (I did not scan carefully).
Also present were at least 100 Black Bellied
Plovers and a single American Golden Plover, 2 Red
Knots, many Sanderling and 6-10 Dowitchers.
Another birder had seen some Semipalmated
Plovers. There were many hundreds of ducks far
off - I saw American Wigeon and Pintails but did
not look closely. No Ruff was seen.

--
Blair Bernson
Edmonds