I stated out with a trip to Eide Rd today. By the time I go there (9am)
there were not many shorebirds. One group of Dowitchers was visible but not
much else. Steve Giles gave me a tip that he thought the Ruff was still
around just hanging out in the reeds in the second pond. Sure enough, after
watching for a bit the Ruff appeared. He has quite far out so I approached a
bit. In the process 2 Wilson's Snipe were flushed out into view were I had
my favorite picture of the day:



Wilson's Snipe

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlebirdman/7994674568/in/photostream



I never got a good picture of the Ruff today. I did also see it Wednesday
morning for a bit and had some sort of picture



Ruff (from 9/12)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlebirdman/7994680125/in/photostream/



After seeing good reports on Tweeters about Shorebirds at the Wiley Rd Game
Range I decided to check it out. It certainly had more shorebirds. There
seemed to be a good collection of Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, Long-billed
Dowitchers and 1 Stilt Sandpiper. These birds were all quite a ways out and
backlit so no decent photos came from that.



Finally, to end my day I headed over to Discovery Park. I have only birded
there a few times so I'm not that familiar with the layout. I looked at a
map ahead of time and thought it should be straight forward. When I arrived
I saw a birder opening their car. I asked about the Lewis's Woodpecker and
she said, yes they are in the same place. You can't miss it. There are a
bunch of birders around. At that point I felt super confident and took off.
I made my way down to the Sand Dunes and took a trail that I thought would
lead to birder's row. Turned out this was still the loop trail and I
followed it all the way over to the Discovery Park Blvd. I knew where I was
at and thought okay I can just go up the road and connect on the North side.
I walked along the fenced in area up the hill and took the first right into
the area that looked promising. As I walked I was looking for "all the
birders". I never saw them and finally thought I was to far West and should
head up East. I got to the paved road just West of Oregon St and still could
see anything. except a bunch of Steller's Jays caching food. I ended up
taking this road back to where I was earlier.



After considering my options I thought I would head back down to the Dunes.
This time I noticed and small footpath leading away from the main path right
in the middle where the trail makes a half circle around the dune. I
continued along finding lots of berry pickers but not birders. Then as I
came over a rise I finally saw 3 people (David Hutchins I think and 2
friends) with binoculars. I approached them and they pointed out the 2 Lewis
woodpeckers. Amazingly I realized about 10 minutes ago I had walked through
this exact area right below where the Woodpeckers we hanging out. But, I
wasn't looking for Woodpeckers. I was looking for birders.



Thank goodness it all worked out. While there I observed them fly catching
from the tops of trees and eating the red berries off a bushy Dogwood tree.
As Linda mentioned there was an Osprey chowing down on a flounder in an
adjacent tree the whole time. Getting a good image was tricky here these two
were about the best I could manage.



Lewis's Woodpecker in the Dogwood

#1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlebirdman/7994677752/in/photostream



#2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlebirdman/7994669959/in/photostream/





Good birding to all,



Doug Schurman

NE Seattle